The Theater, The Theatre
by moonswirl
Summary: Gleekathon, days 1751-1776: Strange apparitions are running about the theater where, in the future, Rachel Berry is reunited with the Doctor. In Lima, 2012, a mistake leaves Gemma and the Glee Club to scramble and get back on track. - DW/Glee crossover #11 (ALTERNATE 12TH DOC)
1. The Regular Crowd

_Started my daily ficlets to make the hiatus pass, then decided to keep going with a 2nd cycle, and then a 3rd, 4th, etc through 83rd cycle. Now cycle 84!_

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_A/N: Well it's been another hellish week... Now I've got six days' worth to catch up post! And going double-single-double-etc days, so that makes nine chapters coming your way right now-ish!_

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**"The Theater, The Theatre"  
Doctor Who/Glee crossover #11  
Doctor Who: (alternate) (female) 12th Doctor  
Glee: Rachel & Glee Club**

**1. The Regular Crowd**

_New York City, in the year 2047_

On a night like this, when their stage had seen not one but two representations, when the second one ended, there would be one of two ways for all those who remained in the theater after the audience had left. Some would finish whatever it was they had to do and go on their way, while others, select few as they were, would linger, as though leaving this place was the very last thing they wanted. On this night, there were seven of them.

Chloe Clarke would have been deemed an audience member on that night, if they had to be precise about it, however anyone who saw her and was familiar enough with the other shows in production in the city and with their casts would have recognized her as being one of the rising stars of the Broadway stage. She was here that night, as she had been several nights already, in order to support two people very dear to her. One of them was her mentor, and the other was her boyfriend.

George Stephanidis was as green as Chloe was, even though she'd had her big break a year or so before he did. This distinction was never mentioned except in playful teasing. If anyone ever doubted just how proud Chloe was of George, then they didn't know either of them at all.

She went to find him in his dressing room, and when she opened the door, he was standing there, halfway through doing up his shirt, as though he'd been stalled by something.

"George?" she called, and he startled, looking back at her. "You okay?" she asked, smirking.

"I just saw… or I thought I saw…" he looked back to where he'd been staring, but then he shook his head, squeezing his eyes together for a moment. "Never mind."

"You need a nap. A big one," Chloe declared.

"Was I off on the finale? My sleeve caught on the gate and it tore, see?" he reached for the shirt he'd just removed a minute before. "I think it threw me off."

"You were fine," she promised, then seeing the look he got, "More than fine. I had no idea anything was wrong, and…"

"George?" a voice called from out in the hall, and a moment later a young woman with frizzy hair came barging into the dressing room. She didn't have to look far, as George still held the shirt. "I knew it! Give me that, I'll get it mended."

Mackenzie Rios could have seemed as though she was on her first gig, too, but the young costumer had been at this for four years already. Nothing ever got by her, and her involvement with the shows she had worked on so far was bordering on legendary. She was also of a mind that if something could be done today, then she would not leave it for tomorrow.

She'd sit with needle and thread and the shirt and in no time the tear would have disappeared as though it had never been there in the first place. She was so focused on her task that it took her a while to hear what sounded like a child's laugh. Even then, she wrote it off and kept working.

Up on the balcony, Jamie Dean Kent sat gazing at the stage below. He'd only been an usher for a few weeks but already he felt more at home here than anywhere else. He'd been entertaining the idea that one day he would be standing on the stage instead of looking at it, though he had told no one; the belief that he would never accomplish anything of the sort had been deeply ingrained into him by his father.

"Don't lean too close now," he heard and turned to find Tom Barren standing a few rows above. Tom was the man with the lights, everyone knew. He'd worked at the theater longer than any of them.

"Sorry," Jamie stood back, though Tom only laughed and came to stand with him.

"You're not the first, you know? And you won't certainly be the last. I could tell you so many stories you wouldn't know what to do with them."

"I'd love to hear them," Jamie nodded honestly.

"Oh, well," Tom chuckled, "Better wait for another day, it's getting late and..."

"What the..." Jamie cut him off, approaching the ledge as he squinted. "Did you see that?"

"See what?" Tom asked.

"I thought I saw a kid run by..."

Below them, in the orchestra pit, the conductor, Maggie Shu was talking, laughing, with the star of their show and Chloe Clarke's mentor.

Rachel Berry had been telling Maggie all about her old show choir director, Will Schuester, after Maggie had referred to her husband as "Mr. Shu" and it had mad Rachel beam.

"He's coming up to New York next month to see the show. He hasn't missed one, right from my first," she smiled, for a moment taken back to those days when her dream still seemed so very far away. Every time Will Schuester came into town, it reminded her how far she'd come.

Later she would swear she had heard something in that moment, or maybe she'd only felt it. Either way, she had felt a chill, and she wasn't sure why.

X

It was already late at night when the Doctor opened the TARDIS doors and peered out, but she didn't mind. Ever since her last regeneration, the one that had left her a 'her' rather than a 'him,' she had been particularly appeased by the night's sky. And she had to hand it to New York City for being one of her favorites.

She hasn't known, when she'd come here, what it was she was getting herself into. But then she'd turned and seen the poster, impossible to miss, with a face she knew, one she'd first seen in her previous incarnation, in Lima, Ohio.

"Hello, Rachel," she smiled before returning into the TARDIS. Now she knew.

TO BE CONTINUED (TODAY)


	2. Untimely

**"The Theater, The Theatre"**

**2. Untimely**

_June 2012 - Lima, Ohio_

She knew something wasn't right the moment she reappeared in her apartment. There was a different scent to the air, some things felt out of place in a very specific way, like someone had been there, and they'd looked through her belongings before attempting to put them all back as they'd been and only succeeding to a certain point.

Then she reached for her phone. The Doctor had done something to it so that, wherever she'd land she would know the correct date and time at that point in space where she was. She'd always been thankful for it... Now more than ever.

"June?" her voice faltered. That couldn't be. She'd left in May, she was returning to May, the same day she'd left... But by her phone now, she saw she had been gone near on an entire month.

Her first thought was to try and go back, to land when she was meant to. But she could already hear the Doctor's voice in her head. She couldn't do that. Whatever it meant for her secret identity here, her job, the mission... Walter... She was going to have to deal with the consequences.

The messages were dinging their way in, growing more and more worrisome to her ear. When they'd stopped - there were 64 - she'd sat on her bed and started going through the texts first. She didn't know how they had all gotten hold of her number, but each of the kids from the Glee Club, those of them in the know, had written to her several times.

They were wondering why she wasn't at school, with passing curiosity at first, then growing concern, until at the end they sounded almost desperate for her to give sign of life. They were genuinely concerned for her, and she felt touched as much as she felt sorry that they had to go through that because of some mistake of hers.

The voicemails were not that much better. There had been a few inquiring from the school as to her absences, with growing annoyance, until the last one they had sent, informing her that she'd been let go. This was not good. She needed access to the school, especially when they were so close to the end of it all, now much closer than anticipated, thanks to this turn of events… They might only have days before the Doctor showed up now.

It should have been that, despite her being away, people would have been able to reach her. But then she guessed it was one thing for her to be gone for an amount of time concurrent to the one which had been experienced by everyone else, while it was another if she was only gone for minutes as far as she was aware of it. This also meant that, among all those messages, there were some from Walter, too. She'd only gotten to listen to two of them, the first unaware of anything out of order, and the other showing the start of being concerned, before she thought she heard her name being called from out in the hall. She'd only just gone to open the door, and then there he stood just outside, slightly out of breath as though he'd been running.

The look in his eyes was that of a man haunted. He was fixed to the ground, unable to move, and Gemma was taken with chills, thinking he might start to cry. She didn't know what to say to him. The words were right there on the tip of her tongue, the facts of the situation… they just didn't feel right, now that she was looking at him. At the very least, she managed to reach for his hand to pull him into the apartment and shut the door before anyone came around and wondered what was happening. The sound of the door and the feel of her hand had reached him.

"I didn't want to think, I… I didn't know if something had happened to you, or if you'd just left," he tried to sound calm, she could tell, just as she could hear how much he failed in his attempt. She could hear him wanting to be upset with her, at the thought that she might have just up and left him, but it was being overridden by the relief of having her back and knowing she was safe.

"Something went wrong with this," she held up her arm to show the vortex manipulator. "I didn't even realize it until I came here and saw the date… Walter, I swear, I was gone less than an hour, as far as I knew, I would never…"

He didn't need to hear more. He trusted her word, and she knew he did when his arms wrapped themselves around her and pulled her near. She kissed him, hoping he knew just how much it pained her to even think of what these past few weeks must have been like for him. It was so much harder, when in her head she could only remember how she'd seen him, very shortly before she'd gone, and he'd been so happy, and they'd been laughing… The man that stood before her now had been touched with grief.

"I'm so sorry…" she felt tears coming, but he shook his head.

"Don't," he insisted. "I'm just glad you're okay." He would want to know what had happened, and she would want to ask him about the last few weeks, too. They spoke about it all for quite some time, and the further Walter told her about the time she was 'gone,' the harder it got for her not to be so very sorry.

"It won't happen again," she swore, and she hoped more than anything that she wasn't lying in saying this.

She had felt it was only right that she didn't turn to him with a request for assistance until the next morning, but she didn't have a choice anymore by then. Something had to be done, and only Walter could accomplish this for her at the time being.

"I need to get back into that school."

TO BE CONTINUED (TOMORROW)


	3. Willing Ear

**"The Theater, The Theatre"**

**3. Willing Ear**

_New York City, in the year 2047_

Morning rose over the theater, and while some of its grandeur seemed a bit faded in the light of day, when the Doctor stepped off the TARDIS proper, she did feel as though she was right where she needed to be. As far as she knew, there was no performance until later, if at all today, but there would be some of them inside, maybe some of them even they knew.

She'd come upon locked doors, and she'd only just reached a furtive hand into her pocket to dig out her sonic screwdriver and let herself in when she felt someone approaching and she sprang to discreetly pull away.

A young woman came walking up to the theater doors, shoulders hunched as she reached into her bag. It was only as this search edged on that the Doctor heard a distinct sort of sniffling. The girl was crying, trying and failing to stop, and just as she'd found the keychain, from which a jade frog dangled, the thing stayed true to its form and all but looked to hop as it accidentally fell from her fingers on to the sidewalk.

"Great," she lamented, and now as she turned half to the side, the Doctor noticed the great roundness of her belly, and she hurried forward.

"Here, hold on," she crouched, retrieving the key chain and handing it over to the pregnant girl. "Tried to get away from you, didn't it?" she smiled, indicating the frog, hoping it might lighten the mood, stop those tears. The girl gave a half-hearted smile, though it didn't hold very long.

"Thanks," she said.

"You work here then?" the Doctor went on.

"Oh, no, I… My mother does, she's, well, that's her right there," she pointed up to the sign, the image the Doctor had looked to only the night before. Now she looked back to the girl, and she had some difficulty not letting her thoughts carry on to her face.

"Oh, of course," she tried to adjust. "I know your mother. Well, I know her work, like anyone, yes." The girl nodded, the way one did when they were used to hearing something. "I'm… Jane, Jane Smith," she offered her hand, and she was glad when the girl shook it.

"Sophie Perry," she introduced herself, and the Doctor smiled as though she hadn't known it already. As she still held, she looked her in the eye.

"Are you alright, Sophie?" she asked, and the girl let go of her hand, only to reach up and dry her face.

"It's nothing," she insisted, finding the key for the door.

"Doesn't seem like nothing," the Doctor pointed out. "Tears like that…" Sophie looked back around, and her face asked whether or not 'Jane' was coming in. She had to have seen her standing there and assumed she meant to go in, same as her. So she followed. "So go on then, what's troubling…"

"Sophie?" They both turned at once, and while the Doctor was attempting once more to diminish her surprise, Sophie moved forward to meet the woman coming their way. "Is everything… Are you okay?" Rachel asked, seeing the puffiness and the tears on her daughter's face. She had grown older, naturally, in the thirty-five years since she'd first met her, but the Doctor could still recognize the young girl in her features.

"I'm fine," Sophie told her mother, taking a deep breath. She'd needed to see her mother, and now even a few seconds had been enough to start her feeling better.

"Sophie…" Rachel needed more than that.

"Julian and I had a fight," she finally admitted. "Look, I don't want to get into it right now."

"You came to see me, if you didn't want to…"

"I had to, I didn't know where else to go, okay?" Sophie threw back, then lowering her voice again, "I walked out before it got any worse, I needed some air." She turned a look on to her mother: she didn't want to say anymore.

"Always best to cool off," the Doctor piped in then, and while Sophie looked at once happy for the stranger's input, Rachel looked at her, having noticed her only now.

"I'm sorry, I… Who are you?" she inquired.

"Oh, now where are my manners," the Doctor took a step forward, a smile on her face. "Jane Smith, it's a pleasure to meet you, it is. I was just telling your daughter how…"

She heard a scream in the distance. They all heard it, all stopped where they stood, rattled by the sound.

The one who'd screamed was Maggie Shu the conductor, and what had caused her scream was this:

Standing as she often did, in the orchestra pit, she'd been reading her book when something had caught her eye up above. She'd looked up, and there it was… there she was. The figure up in the balcony was so far that at first her face was hard to see. But there was the rest of her, the pristine white gown, light and feathery looking even from where Maggie could see her. Her hair was long and had a bit of a glimmer to it, though it was as white as her dress. Her skin was pale as though covered in powder makeup.

All of this made it harder to recognize her face, but then the image was one all too familiar to any Broadway fan at this time. It was the Angel, from the Rise of the Fallen. It had premiered twenty-one years ago, in this very theater, and still ran to this day.

It was a classic. But once upon a time it had been brand new, and at that time, the role of the Angel had been played by Rachel Berry. She'd won a Tony for it.

And thinking of this, now the woman's face was familiar at last.

"Rachel?" Maggie had asked, barely a whisper.

All she could see was the pale one standing there, just at the edge, extending her great majestic wings and falling forward, soaring, soaring, until she disappeared through the aisle carpet. And that was when Maggie had screamed.

TO BE CONTINUED (TOMORROW)


	4. An Old Friend

**"The Theater, The Theatre"**

**4. An Old Friend**

_New York City, in the year 2047_

Before they'd even had the chance to run toward the sound, Maggie Shu had come tearing out of the auditorium. When she saw Rachel standing there, she screamed again, startled to a stop.

"Maggie, what happened?" Rachel asked, but for a while the other woman could do nothing but stare at her. "Maggie!"

"I saw you... i-in there..." she finally spoke, her voice trembling. "It was you, only it couldn't, you... The Angel..."

"Maggie, you're not making any sense..."

"Oh, look, they're playing my song," the Doctor muttered.

"I saw you, up in the balcony, you were the Angel from Rise, you were, and then you jumped and you disappeared," Maggie tried to explain once more.

"Who's the Angel from Rise?" the Doctor asked.

"A character I played, years ago," Rachel replied. "Except I wasn't in there, Maggie, so I don't know what you saw, but..."

"You'll never believe what I just saw," a young man came jogging up to them.

"I wouldn't say 'never,'" the Doctor piped in before taking a step toward him. "What did you see…" she left it open for him or anyone to state his name.

"Jamie," he introduced himself, unsure of who this woman was, before turning back to Rachel and Sophie.

Jamie and Sophie had gone to the same high school, though they hadn't known one another at the time, both having graduated six years ago. Finding that out had forged a friendship between the pair of them, even as Jamie sort of idolized Sophie's mother.

"I saw Cassie and Brian, down in coat check," Jamie told the two of them.

"Who?" the Doctor asked, though the mother and daughter didn't look any closer to understanding what the usher was going on about.

"Cassie and Brian," Jamie repeated with a nod, as though they should understand, then, "From Mother Mae. It's really them, they're just like in the videos and the pictures, Betsy Cohen, Thomas Ian Carter, they look exactly the way they did. But I tried to talk to them and I'm not sure they could hear me. They were so quiet, it was… kind of creepy," he admitted.

"Are they still there?" the Doctor asked, and Jamie nodded. "Lead the way." He looked to the others, who were just as curious to find out what was going on, and after Rachel nodded, he went, and the Doctor, Rachel, Sophie, and Maggie followed. The strangeness of the situation as a whole appeared to have swept aside any questions as to who this woman was who had suddenly arrived and placed herself more or less in charge, and the Doctor made no effort to point it out. The small group advanced as fast as they could allow, factoring in that Sophie couldn't exactly run. The Doctor had half a mind to run ahead, so they didn't miss these odd apparitions.

But then they made it down to coat check, and Jamie was careful to point in to where he had seen the two of them, without making a sound. The Doctor went ahead, just as cautious, but at the same time reaching for her sonic screwdriver, letting it precede her as she advanced. It would be the soft whirring sound that gave her away, but not to the apparitions. Just as the sound had filled her ears, Rachel had gasped. It may have been three and a half decades since she'd last heard it, but she could never forget it. Now all she could do was stare at the woman and wonder, because in the split second she'd realized who the woman could be, she had also spotted the other two.

It was just as Jamie had said. Rachel recognized them, too, and so did Sophie, and Maggie. Mother Mae had first run in the years when Rachel Berry was a student at McKinley High. A revival had run when Sophie had been in elementary school, and she'd asked her parents so many times to go and see it, but they'd deemed she wasn't old enough for some of the components in the play about the youth home, where Cassie and Brian, originally portrayed by the young Cohen and Carter, were living. The two of them had played together again three times over the years, making them one of the most noted pairs of the theater community.

The pair they saw now though was the Cohen and Carter of old, before notoriety came knocking. Betsy Cohen all willowy, with a messy head of brown hair, Thomas Ian Carter with those pale eyes that seemed to spark right out of his dark skin, never as much as they'd done in the beginning.

They looked confused, and a tiny bit scared. They held hands for reassurance, but for how spooked they looked, it had nothing to do with the people who'd just walked in. They paid them no mind, and the Doctor had a sneaking suspicion 'Cassie and Brian' couldn't see them or hear them.

But then Cassie had leaned in to whisper at Brian's ear, and he'd nodded, and then they'd walked off together… through the wall.

"That was really them…" Sophie was the first to speak. "How could it be them? And how did they just…" she pointed to the wall through which they'd gone. No one had an answer. But Rachel had a question.

"Doctor?" she asked the woman who'd been staring at her screwdriver. The Doctor slipped it back into her pocket before turning to her.

"Hello," she bowed her head, and Rachel's hand covered her mouth, stunned to silence. Sophie, for her part, still had a voice. As soon as her mother had said the word 'Doctor,' she'd looked to the woman she'd known as Jane for all of ten minutes, and now everything made sense.

"It's really you?" she asked. "My mother used to tell me stories about you when I was little, but I didn't know you were real, I… always thought you were a man," she frowned.

"Not entirely wrong there, Sophie," the Doctor breathed, looking back to where 'Cassie and Brian' had been. Her observations had been inconclusive, but the one thing she did know by now was that she wasn't the only thing in this theater that wasn't as made up as she was presumed to be.

TO BE CONTINUED (TODAY)


	5. By Proxy

**"The Theater, The Theatre"**

**5. By Proxy**

_June 2012 – Lima, Ohio_

It was probably just as well that Walter walked into McKinley High while classes were in session, which left the hallways mostly vacant. He was entirely too stressed and awkward-looking for him not to raise suspicion.

"Relax, everything will be fine," Gemma told him, and he absently reached to his ear, even though the small bud was deep enough that no one would see it. Gemma had gotten it for him, though she hadn't specified how.

"I am relaxed," he protested, though he kept his voice low, in case anyone heard him and thought he might be talking to himself.

"Please, I can hear you breathing. It's no big deal, you'll see."

"Chasing away a couple of kids is one thing. If I get caught, I could get arrested."

"Walter, I was a teacher in that school for half a year, and you know as well as I do I am not actually one. You won't get arrested, but you have to get going."

With a few deep breaths, he'd gone on ahead toward the principal's office, where after a quick talk with the secretary and a few minutes sitting across from her desk, he was received into Figgins' office. It was a long shot, Gemma realized, but it was the only one she had at her disposal. If she couldn't get back into McKinley, then someone else would have to. Provided that Walter could get in there, they'd have to figure out what to do about his actual job, but for now it all depended on this talk.

It had been a bust. There was no need for a substitute at the time. As Gemma had heard it through the bud, from Figgins himself, they had needed someone, after another substitute had simply up and left without notice a few weeks past – she heard his frustration just as well. Their one saving grace was that the papers Gemma had generated for him, in knowing how she'd been granted access herself, had been accepted, and Figgins agreed to let Walter know if any opportunities came about.

By the time he left the principal's office, Walter exited out into crowded hallways. The students had been let out of class and were on break, leading up to the start of their next classes. Gemma was still talking to him through the bud, telling him that they would find a way, even if they had to create a vacancy, same as she'd done, but Walter said nothing, so not to draw attention to himself. He needed to get out of the school before he got to say anything.

"Walt!" a voice called out from down the hall, and he stopped.

"Who's that?" Gemma's voice asked. Walter turned, and he sighed.

"Puck," he spoke, not to her but to the boy who was now approaching him.

"Yeah," Puck confirmed, while Gemma was muttering something in Walter's ear. "What are you doing here?"

"I, uh…" he looked down to his hands, where he still held the folder he'd walked in with. "I was thinking of applying for some night classes," he lied. "Brush up on some stuff, you know?"

"Why would you want to go to school if you don't have to?" Puck looked entirely confused.

"Stranger things have happened," Walter replied. "I'll see you around, okay?" he nodded, turning to make his exit.

"Still haven't heard from her?" Puck called after him, and Walter stopped again, looking back at him.

Gemma already knew how the kids from the Glee Club had been looking to Walter in the past few weeks, to know if there had been any developments, if she'd come back or if something, some information, had been unearthed, anything to explain how she'd just disappeared the way she'd done. Any new proof she came upon, showing her how much those kids had really been worried for her only left her feeling once again like she'd had more of an impact that she could have realized. For how much she'd been keeping from them throughout this time, she might have expected some of them to resent her.

"Walter, ask him to follow you, go somewhere where you can talk in private," Gemma told him.

"Come with me," Walter told Puck, and they walked until he could find an empty classroom that didn't look as though it was about to be occupied for next period. After shutting the door, he turned back to Puck, and Gemma took his silence for his asking 'now what?'

"Tell him."

"She's back," he said, and she could practically hear his own relief about it, flowing through his breath and his words.

"What?" Puck blurted out. "Since when?"

"Since last night. Look, it's… hang on," he dug his finger in his ear, which confused Puck even further, until he saw him pull out the small bud.

"What the h…" he started to ask, until Walter held out the little thing to him. "Dude, I am not putting that thing in my ear after it's been in yours."

"You want to talk to her or not?"

X

She'd spent all day cleaning up her apartment, while she tried to come up with a solution about the McKinley problem. She knew by now that it had been Walter who'd gone through her things, not because he wanted to but because it was the only thing he had that might help him figure out what had happened to her after she'd disappeared. Now she just needed to put everything back as it was meant to be, the way she wanted it. He had come upon some of her hiding places, but not all of them, she could tell.

She'd only just finished putting everything back in order a few minutes before, when there was a knock at her door. Even as she stood, she had a strong feeling she knew exactly who would be on the other side of that door. That didn't stop her heart from giving a small leap, pulling the door open to find the majority of the Glee Club amassed on her doorstep, staring back at her and looking every bit as happy to see her as she was to see them.

TO BE CONTINUED (TOMORROW)


	6. The Tales of Old and Yet to Come

**"The Theater, The Theatre"**

**6. The Tales of Old & Yet to Come**

_New York City, in the year 2047_

Maggie and Jamie had been dismissed from the room as discreetly as could be, by Rachel asking them to go around and see if anyone else might have seen anything. Jamie had mentioned something on the way out about having seen a small girl running across the stage the night before. Now all that remained in the coat check room were Rachel, and Sophie, and the woman they now knew to be the Doctor. Sophie looked happier than she'd been earlier, and the Doctor ventured that the revelation of her identity had helped her push the fight she'd had with her baby's father to the back of her mind. If this allowed her relief from the stress of it all, then the Doctor was all for it.

"This is incredible…" Rachel couldn't stop staring at her. "They told me about this, about how you eventually changed like this, but I never really believed it," she shook her head.

"If it makes you feel any better, I never expected this either," the Doctor told her. "Still some getting used to, and some unfortunate misunderstandings here and… and there… But that's not what we're here for, is it?" she did her best to brush off the subject without being too strange about it.

"I still can't believe you're real," Sophie shook her head. "She told me how the Doctor had come from another world, that he travelled in time and space in a blue box that was bigger on the inside."

"About sums it up," the Doctor nodded. It might have been an entirely different story if Sophie hadn't seen these apparitions of 'Cohen and Carter' walk through the wall as though it was nothing but air. But she had seen them, and try as she might to deny the possibility that her mother's bedtime stories weren't real, she couldn't have done it. She had the proof in flesh and blood, standing before her. When she went to sit down on a nearby chair, her mother moved up to her.

"Are you okay?"

"It's just a lot to take in," Sophie nodded. "It's like finding out Mother Goose is just out there walking around in the world," she shook her head, then with a pause, turning back to the Doctor. "She's not, is she?" The Doctor opened her mouth to speak, but Sophie raised her hand. "I don't need to know."

"You know, a lot of it was based on the truth, but after a while you did want new stories, so I had to make some of them up," Rachel crouched next to her, and Sophie's head turned to look at her instantly.

"How much? What about the Teacher? Was she real?"

"The Teacher?" the Doctor asked, cautiously. This could really have meant one of two things, but she was almost certain she knew which one it would be.

"That was what my mother called her. It was always the two of them, the Doctor, and the Teacher," Sophie nodded. The Doctor looked to Rachel, and there was no doubt now who she meant. "So was she real or not?"

Here she was now, twenty-four years old and about to be a mother herself, but she couldn't abandon the stories that had fed her childhood, especially these. No one understood that better than her mother. It always been a package deal, the Doctor, the Teacher, the magical blue box… But for no reason she could explain, she had always looked up to the Teacher the most. Little Sophie had loved everything she did, and would go so far as to run around and pretend to be her. Even when she would tell her friends at school and they would laugh at her because they'd never heard of it, she didn't care. They could keep their superheroes; she already had hers.

"Would it change anything if I told you she was or wasn't?" the Doctor eventually asked. She watched Sophie as she considered this, looking down at herself and laying a hand atop her round belly, and the Doctor wondered how she would react if she was ever to understand she had never been closer to the one she meant to learn about. If she ever found out the truth, it would change things; they couldn't have that.

"I guess not," Sophie finally spoke, though her voice had some disappointment in it.

"You know, I did meet your mother once before, did she tell you that? She was quite something back then, and from what I hear she still is today," the Doctor nodded, looking back to Rachel, who couldn't help but smile. "You want to hear a good story, an absolute real one, you ask her about that one day."

"You don't have to tell me how good she is," Sophie promised, her own smile appearing like a carbon copy of the woman crouching by her side.

Just then, there was a rapid knock at the door, which preceded the return of Jamie the usher.

"You need to come, there's more of them now," he reported. Hearing this, Rachel had stood back up and reached to offer her daughter a hand so she'd get up, too.

"How many?" the Doctor asked.

"Well, there was the Angel, and Cassie and Brian, and I know that little girl had to be one of them, too. But Mackenzie saw one that wasn't those, and Chloe and George had one. Tom swore he saw Mr. Bennett from the Winter Downs, and Lady Hanlon from At Third Bell…"

"Another Betsy Cohen?" Rachel asked, and he nodded. "That was thirty years ago…"

"There's more," Jamie got their attention back now. "I was coming back to get you already, then Maggie found another one… and that one looked right at her. It looked like she was trying to talk."

TO BE CONTINUED (TOMORROW)


	7. Ghosts

**"The Theater, The Theatre"**

**7. Ghosts**

_New York City, in the year 2047_

No matter where anyone went, it seemed they couldn't escape seeing one of the apparitions or another. They went about, walking, running, passing through walls, doors, any object in their path. At varying levels, it seemed, they were beginning to become aware of their surroundings. Whether they understood any of it was anyone's guess, but they were still spooked and they would not stay around people for very long, even when they came across another apparition. The only ones who seemed willing to stay together were Cassie and Brian; it was in their entire story that they should stick to one another.

For the Doctor and the others, coming back up from the coat check room, it felt like an entirely new world, where everyone was suddenly and collectively concentrated on the situation as it kept on unfolding. All of them who were presently within the theater were now aware of these apparitions. They had congregated within the auditorium, though there were some among them who wanted nothing more than to leave. They were on the verge of it when the Doctor and the others arrived.

"Yes, hello, excuse me?" she raised her voice, arms out so to draw their attention. Little by little, they turned, looking at her and no doubt wondering who she was. "I am the Doctor," she introduced herself. "It's come to my attention that all of you have been seeing some… strange things today, right here in this theater. If you will all wait here calmly and patiently, I will see to it that this is quickly sorted."

"What kind of doctor?" Tom Barren asked.

"Maybe we should just leave," Mackenzie Rios shook her head.

"I understand, I really do," the Doctor told her. "All I ask is that you wait."

With no further explanation, leaving Rachel and Jamie both to work together, the Doctor had turned to leave the room, asking Sophie to follow her. When the girl had asked why her, the Doctor had explained she needed someone who might be able to tell her about whoever they'd encounter. This was true, but deeper than that, the Doctor could not help but want to keep an eye on her, knowing just what, or rather who, she carried inside her.

The apparition who had looked Maggie in the eye was found crouched in the corner of the stairway leading to the balconies. When the Doctor and Sophie had made it there, they'd found she hadn't moved.

"Hello?" Sophie spoke first, and while the Doctor was about to shush her, the woman on the ground just lifted her head enough that they could see her eyes peering over her folded arms.

"Do you recognize her?" the Doctor whispered.

"I'm not sure. Which one would she think she is? The character, or…"

"Do you know your name?" the Doctor decided to ask the woman, taking on as calm and collected of a voice as she could.

What came out of the woman's mouth at first, what parts of it they could hear while it remained pressed into her arms, was muffled and broken, like she was still learning to use the tools of speech. But with patient seconds, words began to be distinguishable.

"P... P... Pri... Prison... Pri-Prisoner..."

"Prisoner?" the Doctor repeated.

"Zero..." the woman followed, and the Doctor held her breath, feeling a chill for one moment before the woman spoke again. "Se... Seven..."

"Zero seven one two!" Sophie blurted out, and it made the woman raise her face. "Prisoner 0712, from Ward Eight. That's Jane Mattson. I know her daughter."

"Right, good, this is good," the Doctor nodded to Sophie before turning back to the woman. "Don't be afraid," she told 'Prisoner 0712.' "We won't hurt you," she promised, carefully aiming her sonic screwdriver at her, so to finally have a proper idea of what it was they were facing. "Does the name Jane Mattson ring a bell?" she asked. The woman showed no sign of recollection. "Do you know where you are?"

"No... Don't make me go back... Please..."

"Getting a hang of that voice, aren't you?" the Doctor asked. She was starting to get a better picture now... and she didn't like it at all. "Sophie, come with me, slowly now, no sudden movements." She did as told, though she kept looking back to the woman.

"Shouldn't we help her?"

"We will. But whatever you do, don't let her touch you, good rule of thumb right there."

Returning to the hall and the doors through which the others would be waiting, the Doctor found Rachel and told her what she was about to do, and what Rachel had to do in return. More than anything, the Doctor would rely on two things when it came to her: She needed her knowledge on who these people were, who they appeared as, how to fit in to anything… She needed Rachel's Broadway brain. The second thing she needed from her, maybe more than the rest, was the fact that Rachel had travelled with her before, and that she knew that she could trust her, regardless of the fact that she'd come into this now with both a new face and gender. From what she remembered of Rachel Berry, she didn't feel at all worried about leaving her to address the others, and she'd need to put all those skills to work. She had to keep the others from panicking, while the Doctor and Sophie went and locked and barricaded all the doors in and out of the theater, and convince them that it didn't mean they were trapped. And when that was done, if at all possible, they would need to gather everyone, alive and apparition alike, into the same room, without letting one group touch the other.

TO BE CONTINUED (TODAY)


	8. All In Time

**"The Theater, The Theatre"**

**8. All In Time**

_New York City, in the year 2047_

The Doctor was astounded at the number of doors and windows they had needed to go and block off around the theater, but then there was no other way. It wasn't just about keeping people from leaving, it was also about keeping anyone from coming in. Sophie had been the one to think about writing up some quick signs to inform people the theater would be unexpectedly closed for the day. As they went on, she'd have her pad and marker and she would reproduce in the same finely looped handwriting the message she had come up with.

"This should be the last one then…" the Doctor turned around, and rather than finding the girl finishing out the final sign, she instead found her staring absently at her phone. She'd been doing this a lot as they went around. "Expecting a call?" the Doctor asked, approaching. Sophie startled, looking up.

"Sorry?" she asked, but then looked down, remembering the sign and getting back to transcribing the message. The Doctor stopped her hand, sat by her side.

"I know what I said earlier, about taking time to cool off, but if you need someone to listen…"

"You don't want to hear about all that," Sophie assured her, trying to laugh but only finding herself back at the mercy of her tears. "I'm sorry, I'm kind of a mess right now, I'm not always like this, I swear."

"I believe you," the Doctor smiled.

"We haven't been together all that long, me and Julian," Sophie found herself saying. "We hadn't even been dating two years when we found out we were going to have this baby," she explained, her hand already brushing protectively at her belly. "At first I got scared that when I told him about it, he wouldn't want to stay, but he did. We moved in together, everything was great. He's been so happy, and he talks to her all the time," she smiled weakly.

"It's a girl then," the Doctor smiled, too, barely contained.

"We don't really know, but… she feels like a girl to me." Sophie looked back to the Doctor, whose eyes asked what happened next. Sophie sighed. "It started off… I didn't even see it coming," she shook her head. "First thing this morning, when I woke up, he… he proposed."

"And this was… bad?" the Doctor asked.

"I said yes, didn't even have to think about it. But then he said something, and I asked him if he was only doing that because of the baby. It all just went downhill after that, we said things…" she paused to breathe, remembering it. "It's been freaking me out, the closer we got to the baby being born, and it must have freaked him out, too, and when we started getting into it, and we let those fears out…"

"And you left."

"I had to. The last thing I wanted him to say was that he'd had enough, that he was leaving, and I thought if I stayed then it could only come to that…"

The Doctor took the girl's hand. There were so many things she wished she could tell the girl right then and there, but it couldn't be, so she held her tongue until she could find words she might speak in confidence.

"You love this boy?"

"More than anyone… both of them," she looked down.

"And he loves you?" Sophie had no words, but her sniffles were enough. "I may not be the best authority on relationships, but there are things out there that don't need complicating. This is one of them. Give it time, give yourselves time. You'll sort it out."

"You think so?"

"I know so," the Doctor nodded, and Sophie looked to accept it, with all the gratitude she could muster. With the last sign posted, and the last doors handled, they'd started back to rejoin the others, though Sophie asked that they take time so that she could dry her tears and look a bit more normal, or else her mother would be all over her.

They were greeted at the door by Chloe and George. Sophie told the Doctor how both of them had been part of one of her mother's workshops, two years ago, and that Chloe had even stayed with them over the summer, before she'd ended up getting her first role. Since then, her family had relocated from Indiana to New York to be with her. The redheaded girl was the closest thing Sophie had to a sister.

"You know that thing I told you about from last night?" Chloe had started telling Sophie. "How George thought he'd seen something? It was her," she pointed over her shoulder, and both Sophie and the Doctor looked. Sitting on her own, wearing tattered clothes, was a small girl, no older than eight or nine. As soon as Sophie saw her, she gasped.

"That's Annabeth Simms… She was Young Cosima in Rise. I have a bunch of pictures back home, and she looked exactly like that, except she was holding me in her lap, I must have been three or four years old," she recalled.

"She was running around the theater last night," George confirmed. "But when they brought her here now, she didn't just talk, she knew who she was. She thinks she's Cosima, not Annabeth. They all think they're their characters."

"Yes, I imagine they would," the Doctor muttered to herself.

"Nine…" Sophie spoke, and the Doctor looked back at her.

"What's that?"

"There's nine of us here," she noted, then as no one reacted, "And there's nine of them, too. We're matched even. Is that a coincidence or…"

"Sophie, hasn't your mother ever taught you there's no such thing as coincidence?"

TO BE CONTINUED (TOMORROW)


	9. Patience

**"The Theater, The Theatre"**

**9. Patience**

_New York City, in the year 2047_

Now that they found themselves joined by nine increasingly self-aware ghosts, the Doctor felt it might be important that introductions be made. She had been through enough situations that bore some resemblance to this not to know that maintaining civilized and respectful relations with this lot could make the difference between peace and chaos. Most of the theater's people, actors or otherwise, had a vague to precise knowledge of who they were dealing with, but the Doctor would need to be told, and Rachel took it upon herself to inform her.

Already she knew about the pair from the play Mother Mae, Cassie and Brian, and whose faces they appeared over. Now that they were more aware of themselves, their proper characters had emerged. In the play, Cassie had been a runaway with a shady past, who arrived at the youth home run by the titular Mother Mae, and there she'd met Brian, who had been orphaned early on in life and was adopted by Mae. The pair's love story was only one slice of the play, but it was one that had marked audiences.

Then there was Prisoner 0712, who still sat on the ground, although there was an openness to her, like she wasn't afraid of being seen. Rachel had explained, keeping the 'reality' talk as discreet as she could, how Ward Eight took place in a futuristic prison. It had been an unexpected hit, and 0712 was its star, a prisoner who had forsaken both her past and her name, in order to atone for her crime. It was never revealed in the play, only alluded to.

There was the sort of bumbling Mr. Bennett, the owner of the Winter Downs. The musical followed the failing business, as Mr. Bennett, played by Anderson Cobb, led his employees and tried to pick their store back up. It still ran, every holiday season, since its premiere six years ago.

When the Doctor had inquired about the 'very straight-backed young man' standing nearby, Rachel had told her this was Michael Chen as Prince James, from Kingdom. She vividly recalled the play, as she'd been pregnant with Sophie when she'd gone to see it. Prince James was the prodigal son returned, as the young prince had been fostered away most of his life and had to come into his princely ways before he could be crowned.

Standing near the prince, as though it would only be right for them to associate, was their second Betsy Cohen, this time in the guise of Lady Hanlon. This had been Cohen's first turn in a musical, where she had played the matriarch in the family saga. Lady Hanlon was played in two times, in her youth and then as the aforementioned matriarch, and Betsy Cohen had played them both. This was the older of the two, the firm hand of At Third Bell.

Up away on the stage she had pointed out the tall woman and introduced her as Etta, from the musical Henrietta. It had run for twelve years, up until last year, and though there had been others to carry the role, none had done it the way Pio Eco had done, and he was the one they saw here. The musical ran through the tale of young insecure Henry as he made his transition into becoming the proud and lively Etta.

The last two, as the Doctor knew by now, both originated from the musical the Rise of the Fallen, known simply as Rise to its fans, for the now twenty-one years of its ongoing run. Today, the girl who appeared before them as Young Cosima, Annabeth Simms, was once again part of its company, playing the adult version of her original role. The rags to riches story also featured the Angel, which stood in a gray area, the celestial guide of the child Cosima whose allegiances were at times questioned. It was a longstanding debate, as longstanding as the musical itself, whether she was good or evil, which split the fan community. Rachel found it difficult to look at her now, seeing her younger self in the same old costume she'd worn so many times. On this Angel though, it seemed so real that the wings might have truly protruded from her back. She kept looking at Rachel, too, seeing the face that was like her own.

Asking the ghosts what they knew was quickly proven as fruitless, as they all showed themselves to be nothing more but echoes of the characters they appeared to be. When turning to the actors and employees of the theater, the Doctor had asked if any of them had noticed anything strange in recent days. The only thing they could think of though, they already knew, and that was the dashing adventures of Young Cosima the night before. They were no closer to figuring out how the ghosts came to be here, but there was at least one ace still in the Doctor's back pocket.

"Everyone stay here, try to think, now, it may seem unimportant to you, but it just may be that you have the answer within you," she told the group before turning to Rachel and Sophie. "You two, follow me." They left the large room, walking through one hallway and another. "Can I borrow your phone?" she looked to Sophie, and the girl frowned before handing it over. The Doctor tapped at it briefly, muttered something, snatched up the sonic screwdriver and aimed it at the phone, which chirped along until the Doctor finally put it to her ear. "The Unicorn," she said.

"What?" Sophie blinked, but the Doctor motioned for her to be quiet.

"Ixta," she went on a few seconds later. Sophie looked to her mother, who could only shrug. A few seconds more, and the Doctor sighed, as they re-entered the coat check room. "Raxacoricofallapatorius! Now are you coming or what?"

The response had been swift, as two seconds later, the room was filled a gust of wind and a sound that left Sophie mystified and brought back memories of long ago to Rachel. Before their eyes, the blue box materialized.

"H-How did you…" Rachel asked.

"I may have had some dull spare time," the Doctor shrugged, "Where I organized a call and response system, to bring the TARDIS to me. You can't imagine the number of times I've been stranded away from it, such as now. I've generated a pool of questions, and a number of them were selected at random."

"How many questions?" Rachel wondered.

"It'll be in the hundreds of thousands now," the Doctor replied. "What can I say, I never know when to stop. But it works," she tapped the side of the ship. Sophie had yet to say a word, staring up at the box in complete wonder, and the Doctor happily opened the door for her and Rachel both.

TO BE CONTINUED (TOMORROW)


	10. Berry & Perry

**"The Theater, The Theatre"**

**10. Berry & Perry**

_New York City, in the year 2033_

Half a year had gone, and still Rachel would be awakened in the middle of the night by the light creak of her bedroom door opening, allowing a sliver of light to enter from the hall before disappearing again. Then, within seconds, the empty side of the bed she'd shared with her husband for twelve years would sink to take on the weight of the ten-year-old girl who'd just introduced herself into the room. Without a word, Rachel would help her get settled by her side, under the blankets, and they would fall asleep together, thinking of him.

Half a year had gone since the day Benjamin Perry had walked out of his car to cross the street, only to be struck down by another driver, who had taken his eyes off the road. Half a year since his daughter, still sitting in their car, had stopped digging through her school bag at the sound of the impact and seen him laid out in the street. Half a year since the day where, due to a misunderstanding over the phone, Rachel Berry spent forty minutes believing both her husband and her daughter had been involved in this accident. She only learned Sophie had been untouched when she arrived at the hospital and found her sitting shell-shocked on a chair next to which one of the nurses was keeping her company.

It had been all over the news for a while, and in the midst of her own grief, Rachel had been left to do all she could to shield little Sophie from being traumatized any further. She had kept her from seeing the articles, the headlines, Benji's smiling face… _Happier times…_

But the nightmares came, and there was no stopping them. All she could do was to be there, to let the warmth of her body and the protection of her arm ward off what monsters swirled through the girl's head. It would work, and Rachel was thankful for that. It was only as time went on, days, and weeks, and months, and events were made to pass for the first time without him, that it became harder to rely only on that hold. Sophie's birthday, and her first day back at school… His birthday, and the holidays…

One particular December night, when Sophie had come up and crawled into bed with her, Rachel had waited, and waited, but she could tell her daughter was still wide awake, so she'd reached for the lamp on the nightstand and turned it on, looking down and finding those brown eyes staring back at her. _Benji's eyes…_ "You need to sleep," Rachel told her daughter, gently stroking her cheek and nudging her hair away. Sophie's eyes turned down, and she pulled herself nearer to her mother's body, hiding under the blanket. "Hey, now, where'd you go?" Rachel pulled the blanket back, and Sophie sat up the way she did when she was about to roll away and off the bed, so she stopped her and brought her back. "Soph…"

"He's not coming back…" she spoke flatly, and Rachel sat up, too.

"You know he can't," she took her daughter's hands.

"But they could bring him back! They could make it so it didn't happen!" Sophie's voice went up.

"Who could?"

"The Doctor, and the Teacher, with their box, they can go back in time…" she explained, then frowning, "But they're not real either, are they?" Now picturing her daughter spending all these last six months relying on the possibility that the alien from her old bedtime stories could swoop in and save her dad, Rachel wished so much that she could give her a yes, but she knew better than that; she'd hoped for it, too, though she wouldn't admit it.

"Sophie, there are some things in the world that can't be fixed. It's one of the hardest things anyone will have to learn, but it's the truth. I'd give anything to bring him back to you, you know that. I miss him… every day." Every morning when she came down the stairs, she stopped at his picture on the wall, and wished him a good morning, same as she wished him a good night when she went up at the end of the day. She never forgot, not one day.

Sophie had come back into her arms, and Rachel had held her. The realization that Benji was really gone was going to take the girl a while to adjust to. She'd never lost anyone before.

"Alright, come here, lie down with me," Rachel scooted back to her place, leading her daughter to follow. Once again, she had her wrapped in her arms, and with a breath, she'd looked down at her. "I'm going to tell you a story. Would you like that?" Sophie hesitated.

"A Doctor and Teacher story?" she asked, and Rachel nodded. More hesitation, then… "Okay. Which one?" She knew them all by heart now, but she'd listen all the same as though it had been the first.

"Oh, this isn't one I've told you before," Rachel revealed, and the curiosity couldn't hide from the girl's face, which made her mother smile. When she'd be smaller and her mother would suddenly come along with a new story, Sophie would frown and ask why she hadn't told this one before, so Rachel would tell her that she was saving them for special occasions. Right now she could have told her a story that might have touched on what Sophie was going through, but that wasn't what she wanted or needed. She needed her old friends, the Teacher and the Doctor, to fill her mind with adventures, same as they'd always done. "Alright, let's see then," she made to remember, although by now it was more about inventing than remembering.

"Were they in the blue box?" Sophie asked.

"Actually, yes, they were," Rachel nodded, and Sophie settled in.

By the time she'd finish the story, where the Doctor and the Teacher had naturally triumphed, she could see Sophie was starting to doze off, so she hummed and half sang to her, until she'd closed her eyes and gone to sleep. Rachel reached to the lamp, careful not to move the sleeping girl, and she settled in to get some sleep, too. _Who's going to tell _me_ a story tonight?_

TO BE CONTINUED (TODAY)


	11. Living Tales

**"The Theater, The Theatre"**

**11. Living Tales**

_Inside the TARDIS_

Seeing the look on Sophie's face when they'd first walked on to the TARDIS with her, Rachel could only see her as she'd once been, when they would huddle together and she would tell her daughter about the adventures of the Doctor and the Teacher. The interior had changed since the last time Rachel had seen it, and although it had been that old version she had described countless times to her, Sophie did not look as though she minded the change at all. It was still one of the more impressive sights anyone come upon in their lives. If Rachel had had any doubts still that this woman was the same Doctor as she'd known all those years ago, seeing the barely concealed pride on her face as she watched Sophie discover her ship was enough to prove that this was the Time Lord… or Time Lady now, she supposed.

"It's real…" was all Sophie could say. Rachel looked at her, approaching the console as though she was afraid she might touch it and damage it. "I can't believe I'm standing in a time machine."

"You can't, really?" the Doctor looked around her ship, too.

"Alright, maybe I can," Sophie trailed around, her face relaxing into a smile. "It's just… When I was little, all I ever wanted was for you to be real, you and the Teacher and the time machine."

She didn't go on, didn't say why, but she didn't have to. She had that same look about her the Doctor had seen once before, when she'd first known Rose Tyler, and she so desperately wished to know her father. The Doctor didn't know if it was exactly the same, if it was her father she'd lost, or when, but the weight of loss was on her, as heavy as the Doctor saw it on Sophie's mother.

"People hear the words 'time machine,' more often than not, they never think of the consequences, pasts rewritten, friends lost, loves lost… children…" the Doctor spoke evenly, and in the end, as she'd expected her to, Sophie's hand had reached instinctively to lay over her stomach. After that, she made no more mention of the great unknown that was a time machine. Instead, she had a valid question.

"So why are we here?"

"We are here, because you need to be," the Doctor answered.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean you have to stay here, Sophie, for the time being, and it's very important that you don't step off this ship until we come back to get you, understand?" the Doctor looked her in the eye. She looked about to ask why, so the Doctor took another step toward her, laying her own hand over the future mother's. "Do it for her."

"Right…" Sophie breathed out, nodding slowly. "Got it."

"Feel free to walk around, don't question a locked door, and whatever you do, don't go flipping switches you don't know the function of," she indicated the console.

"Hands off. Noted," Sophie nodded again before reaching into her bag and pulling out a book. "I do a lot of sitting around and waiting these days, I'm always prepared."

"Good girl," the Doctor clasped Sophie's head between her hands and stretched to plant a kiss on her forehead, which at once surprised and amused her. "Right this way, have a seat," the Doctor guided her back to the chair, looked around briefly, then on the spot decided to remove her jacket, fold it up, and insert it between the chair and Sophie's back. "How's that?"

"More comfortable than this, I'll fall right to sleep."

"Good," the Doctor moved back toward the door, then turned again. "Food!" she remembered. Sophie responded by reaching into her bag again and pulling out the snacks she kept on hand, along with a water bottle. "Well done," the Doctor tipped her head to both Sophie and Rachel. "Right," she took Rachel toward the door, and the other woman turned to her daughter with a silent look that asked if she would be alright. Sophie promised she would be, and so they walked out, closing and locking the door to leave the girl to her seat, her snacks, and her book.

"Thank you," Rachel told the Doctor once they'd walked out. "But I just need to know, why keep her here with us when you locked the theater up, only to put her in there?"

"First, if I had to choose between the wide open world and my TARDIS, I'd choose her, always," the Doctor explained. "Second, until we know more, I don't believe anyone should be allowed to leave the premises, or enter them if they aren't already here."

"Why not?" Rachel asked as they moved away from the ship.

"If you'd encountered rapidly adapting beings like this before, you'd know to be on high alert, too," the Doctor stated before looking at her. "When we found those two in the beginning, yes? Brian and Cassie, you remember how they were?"

"They acted like they couldn't see us," Rachel recalled.

"Yes, because they couldn't. But then they could. And then they began to speak, with difficulty and then with no difficulty at all. And they attained their minds, or at least the minds of their characters. And all this has happened in under an hour. So what happens next?"

"Oh…"

"No one must touch them," the Doctor added.

"But they're not… corporeal," Rachel remembered watching those two, with the faces of her old friends and colleagues, just passing through the wall like ghosts.

"Yes, and they also couldn't talk thirty minutes ago, do you see where I'm going with this?"

"Yes, I do, I," Rachel sighed, pulling herself together again, "These are not bad people, those characters. Cassie and Brian are lovers and that's that, Cosima is a little kid, Mr. Bennett, an absolute sweetheart, so's Etta, and 0712 is tragic but harmless, the prince is noble, Lady Hanlon can be a bit of a handful but she's reasonable, and the Angel…"

"… has your face."

"I played her for a long time, they may have their sides out there, but I know who she is." The Doctor knew she wouldn't convince her otherwise. The only thing that would convince her, and she hoped it wouldn't come to that, would be for those ghosts to act in any other way than she expected them to. So rather than arguing any further, the Doctor gave a nod.

"Let's hope you're right."

TO BE CONTINUED (TOMORROW)


	12. In the Light

**"The Theater, The Theatre"**

**12. In the Light**

_June 2012 – Lima, Ohio_

Gemma had never been so aware of the cramped quarters of her apartment until the afternoon where it was filled up by twelve teenagers and herself. She didn't mind it one bit. One by one she welcomed them into her home, receiving a handshake here, a clapped shoulder there, and a number of hugs, which startled her at first, then made her smile whenever she received another. The last one who came was Quinn, and when she saw her, Gemma beamed: the blonde was standing on her own two feet again. It wasn't as though she could have told her that she knew all along she'd regain her ability to walk, so she could only act surprised and thrilled, and it wasn't too much of a stretch. She had come to know this young version of Quinn Fabray, and she'd seen her anguish, after the accident. Now she walked again and there was a brightness returned to her, and Gemma was happy for her.

Trying to get a word in for the first minute or two was a feat near impossible, as everyone looked very eager to both ask questions and air their own experiences of the past few weeks in light of her absence. Gemma was just on the verge of climbing on to her bed or a chair when Puck whistled loud enough that he might have called the entire building to silence.

"Thank you," Gemma winced, touching her ears for a moment as though she expected them to have peeled off out of sheer shock. "Look, I know you have a lot of questions, and I would, too, if I was in your place, but how about we do it like this: I'll tell you what happened, and whatever questions you have after that, go for it. Sound good?" she asked, and after a few seconds they nodded. "Good," she breathed.

"Where'd you go?" Sugar couldn't help but ask, and the others turned a look on her, but Gemma answered, shaking her head with a sigh.

"That's just it, I didn't go anywhere, or… I did, but as far as I knew, I was only gone for minutes. I don't know what happened, why I ended up coming back now instead of when I left, but I did. If you think you were shocked and confused, you should try it on my end." They said nothing. "I never meant to leave all of you like I did. I would have told you, and I certainly wouldn't have allowed myself to lose the teaching job at McKinley. I needed that, to be in the school with all of you."

"Figgins will take you back," Mercedes spoke with assurance, but Gemma chuckled.

"Oh, he won't. I've tried already."

"Then try again," Puck shrugged like there was nothing simpler in the world. "Your boy didn't exactly do better than you." Gemma tried and failed not to smirk at that.

"I won't have a choice, will I?" she agreed.

They had come, all of them together, imagining any number of scenarios for what had happened to their fake substitute/Doctor's companion, anything that would have taken her away for so long, without notice or proof of life. Now that they knew the truth of it, which was entirely uneventful and just bordering on a stupid mistake, they looked unsure as to what they were meant to say or do next.

"So…" Gemma started, hoping she'd either get one of them talking, or she'd somehow think of anything to say. What she ended up going with was "You guys had prom, how did that go?"

"Forget prom, what happens now?" Santana asked.

"Yeah, because you were gone for weeks here, so isn't that bad?" Blaine jumped in.

"It would help if we knew what it was bad for," Tina continued with a nod.

Gemma remembered the bus ride back from the field trip, remembered what she had seen and overheard, and the concerns she'd had because of it. They'd been left to their own devices all this time, so had they kept investigating? Her biggest fear had been that somehow they would start connecting the dots and it would lead them right to her grandmother. What if they'd told her, what if they'd said anything that might someday, somehow, intervene with her grandparents coming together and having her mother, and thereby impeding her own birth? No, they couldn't have, could they? She would have known somehow, she would have ceased to exist, or started fading away like in that old movie…

"Did anything strange happen while I was gone?" she asked them.

"Stranger than Lima?" Kurt joked, though the others seemed to be of a similar mind.

"You know what I mean," Gemma told him before looking around to the others. "Any of you?" They thought about it for a time, but they shook their heads in the end. "Look, we're getting close, really close."

"So we haven't missed it?" Sugar asked.

"No, we haven't," Gemma promised her. "As much as I hate that this mistake made us lose all this time, now we need to focus. We are running out of time, and there are still things to be done."

"We're ready when you are," Artie declared, and the others concurred.

"We do have Nationals coming up," Quinn pointed out.

"It shouldn't interfere with that, don't worry," Gemma told her. She so wanted to be there to see them herself, to watch her grandmother on that stage. She'd always say it was one of the best moments of her life.

"So who are we going after now?" Sam asked. "It's Rachel or Finn, right?" Gemma hesitated briefly, considering their options. All this time she had been doing her best not to get too close, for fear that she might give herself away, but now… Now they were nearing the end of the road, and they couldn't play it easy anymore.

"I'll take the first pass at the next one, if you don't mind. But I might still need you if it doesn't work."

TO BE CONTINUED (TOMORROW)


	13. Cognition

**"The Theater, The Theatre"**

**13. Cognition**

_New York City, in the year 2047_

Wait here, the woman had said. Be patient, and don't leave. It was easy enough to say, but harder still to do. It was one thing for those others to stand around and wait. They seemed to be familiar with this place. But for the others, for those who had only found themselves here in utter confusion, it was something else.

The longer they'd been constrained here, the more it seemed they had grown aware. In the beginning their minds were so very muddled, so much so that they could barely speak or think of who they were. But that was different now. Now they not only knew who they were, they knew they were in a strange place that was not their own and, with the exception of a few, they were all of them among strangers.

"Forgive me," Lady Hanlon approached Cassie. "But I can't help but notice you and I bear something of a resemblance. What is your name, child?"

"Child?" Cassie frowned. "I'm not a child. My name's Cassie."

"Cassandra then," Lady Hanlon could only remain proper in the face of the strange girl.

"No one calls me that," Cassie frowned. "I don't care what I look like to you, you and I have nothing in common."

"You sound the same," Young Cosima piped in, peering over the back of the seat she was standing behind.

"No we don't," Cassie frowned.

"You kind of do," Brian agreed, and Cassie looked at him. He held up his hands in defense, smirking, but she only went on frowning before turning to the others.

"Whether I look or sound like Lady What's-Her-Face or not, I..."

"I am Lady Victoria Hanlon, Miss Cassandra. Not Lady... What's-Her-Face," she repeated as though the words had been an insult, and for once Cassie didn't retort.

"The point is," she got back on track, "I don't like it here, I don't like what's happening to us."

"What's happening to us?" Mr Bennett asked, unsure. Just then Young Cosima had leaned further forward, only to slide right through the cushioned seat and fall on all fours before them with a yelp.

"That," Cassie pointed to the girl, while Etta moved to help her up. "We can't touch anything. We go through walls... It's like we're ghosts."

"Don't be absurd," Lady Hanlon scoffed.

"You're standing next to a lady with wings," Etta nodded to the Angel.

"Those aren't real, are they?" Brian looked at her, too, and the Angel seemed to bristle, which sent her wings to follow in the motion. The others startled.

"That is remarkable," Prince James spoke, and the Angel bowed her head to him.

"I-If we can walk through walls, them why not just leave this place?" Mr Bennett nervously suggested. "They couldn't stop us, could they?"

"I tried that before," Etta shook her head. Young Cosima was now perched in her arms and seemed perfectly content to stay there. "The closer I got, felt like my skin was on fire. And when I touched the wall, I touched it. It's the only solid thing here but the rest of us," she turned a smile to the girl in her arms, and worried as she was, Young Cosima felt so very protected by the tall woman.

"What are we supposed to do now?" Mr Bennett asked.

"Seems as though there are some questions that need answering," Prince James stepped forward. "For instance, how did we come to be here? What is this place? I can't help but notice the strangeness of some of your attires," he looked around, his gaze inevitably lingering on the woman they'd referred to as a prisoner. "Also, however we arrived here, it must have been that someone brought us here. What if it is one of them?" he looked to the six others in the room, who were keeping their distances from the ghosts as much as the ghosts were keeping away from them.

"They do seem to know a whole lot about us," Lady Hanlon concurred.

"They know more than that," the Angel spoke for the first time. "There are images of us, on walls outside this room, I've seen them," she reported. Silence dropped on the ghosts.

"You look like that other lady," Young Cosima told the Angel. "The one who went with the other one that said not to leave."

"She's right, you do," Etta noticed.

"How is that possible?" Prince James was left to wonder again. "You are... Forgive me, but I do not understand... What are you?" he asked.

"I am the Angel," the winged woman merely stated.

"Those aren't real," Cassie frowned.

"She's standing right there, isn't she?" Etta countered.

"Can you fly?" Cassie tested her, and though she was not in the habit of making a spectacle of herself, for the purposes of the situation, the Angel obliged, only so far as to convince the girl.

When she lifted from the ground, it wasn't only the ghosts who stared in wonder, but the other six across the room as well. Young Cosima moved to return to the ground and Etta out her down. The girl had gotten down on her knees and waved her hand in the space under the Angel's feet. When she looked back up, the woman in white was looking down at her in a way that left Young Cosima both comforted and a bit terrified.

"Okay, so you're an angel. Then how can you look like that woman back there?" Cassie asked.

"I don't know," the Angel answered.

"These images you mentioned," Lady Hanlon stepped forward, with something close to reverence, "I wish to see them."

"Me too," Brian jumped in.

"I will take you to them," the Angel agreed.

"They said we... we shouldn't leave," Mr Bennett reminded the others.

"Stay here if you want to. We're going," Cassie declared.

But when they others started to leave, following the Angel through the wall, Mr Bennett followed, ignoring the calls of the six on the other side, who asked them to stay as they'd been told.

TO BE CONTINUED (TODAY)


	14. Face & Retreat

**"The Theater, The Theatre"**

**14. Face & Retreat**

_New York City, in the year 2047_

The Doctor and Rachel returned to find the room much emptier than they had left it. Only the six 'living' remained, and they were arguing loudly amongst themselves. Of the ghosts, there was no sign.

"Hey!" Rachel shouted, and thankfully it got their attention. "What happened?" she asked.

"They all left, a couple minutes ago," Chloe revealed. "We barely had time to notice, so we couldn't stop them."

"We figured we were better off staying here," Mackenzie Rios added.

"Away from the ghosts," the Doctor guessed their fear. "Right, stay here if you will. Those of you who wish to help us find them again, it will be greatly appreciated.

Walking out once more, the Doctor was followed by Rachel, Chloe, George, and Jamie.

"They went through that wall there, so they could have gone through here, or through there," the young usher indicated one path and then a second.

"Right," the Doctor considered their options.

"We could split up," George offered. "Half here, half there..."

"Most times I might agree. Not this one I'm afraid. We stay together," she nodded, then made to reach for her sonic screwdriver, thinking she might be able to track them this way, but when she only touched the space where her jacket pocket should be, she found it absent, just as she remembered where it was: cushioning the back of her future companion's mother, back on the TARDIS. "Right, instinct," she took a breath before pointing... "This way."

"They looked like they were trying to figure things out," Chloe explained. "How they got here and all that." Rachel stopped.

"Doctor, wait." They all stopped and looked at her. "I think I know where they went."

"Well then lead the way," the Doctor gladly bowed her head to her.

"It's back that way."

They had adjusted their course, and before long they came to find the ghosts. They kept quiet so not to announce themselves, and instead they watched. They were staring at a wall, where picture frame upon picture frame were set. Even as they stood some steps away, they could see what pictures had their attention. The entire wall contained images of the various plays and musicals which had been presented in this theater. Here was Lady Hanlon and her two sons, there was Prince James in the coronation scene. was sitting dejected in the middle of his shop, while Etta made herself up before a mirror that was projected on a great screen. Cassie and Brian were kissing in a dark room lit only by a few candles on the ground. Prisoner 0712 sat on her knees, her head thrown back in such a way that they could almost hear the scream that would have followed. And there was the Angel, standing over Young Cosima, sheltering her in her wings.

"This is their theater..." the Doctor spoke despite herself, and when the ghosts heard the voice, pulling them out of their observations, they turned at once.

"Is this me, or is this you," the Angel looked to Rachel and pointed to the picture. Rachel was about to reply, but the Doctor stopped her.

"If you'll only come back with us, we will be happy to explain what we can about..." she started.

"Why can't you tell us right here?" Cassie frowned. "You just want to be able to control us. We didn't choose you to lead us, did we?" This had been exactly the kind of thing the Doctor had been afraid of, and she looked briefly back to Rachel before addressing the ghosts.

"You want me to be blunt, is that so?" she asked Cassie.

"I don't see why not," she declared. The Doctor sighed.

"Very well. The situation is this: Most of those people back there have never seen anything like you. Your lot, on another level, I would say, also find yourselves in what we might call unknown territory. The only way for this to change is for us to put these uncertainties aside and try to get to know one another, and work together."

"Looks to me as though you know plenty about us already," Lady Hanlon pointed to the picture of her on the wall. "Yet we know nothing of you."

"Which can be arranged. I'm the Doctor, and before you ask, that is my only name, just the Doctor. I'm a Time Lady, not born to this Earth, much less this time. I travel in time and space, which I realize will sound rightly insane to many of you, but take in your situation as it is and maybe it won't sound nearly as strange, will it? I have travelled to so many places I would not venture listing them or everyone would die of old age, if not boredom and starvation, the point is," she breathed, "The point is that in all the places I've gone, I have helped many people, and this is what I am attempting to do here. I want to help you, so everyone can get back to where they belong and safely so."

There was silence for seconds, many at first and then many more again, as the Doctor and those who had followed her watched the ghosts look to one another, deciding the path they would take. Some didn't look swayed in the least, others might have followed the Doctor, but in not wanting to offend or separate themselves from their strange new kin, they stayed rooted to where they stood.

But in the end, one little body separated itself from the mass. Young Cosima took hesitant steps forward, looking to the Doctor, and Rachel and those who had accompanied them and seeing in them people she could trust. Anyone who knew the story of Young Cosima in Rise would know this was no simple feat. But then she'd made up her mind and she'd gone forward without looking back. The Doctor crouched before her with a smile.

"Hello there," she nodded. "Cosima, yes?" The girl bowed her head. "That's a beautiful name," she told her, and though it did make the child smile, it wasn't nearly the way she would have imagined it to be. But despite that, when she stood again, they started back to rejoin the others, and the ghost girl followed, while her kin had no choice but to let her go.

TO BE CONTINUED (TOMORROW)


	15. Homegrown

**"The Theater, The Theatre"**

**15. Homegrown**

_June 2012 - Lima, Ohio_

After the Glee Club had left her apartment, Gemma had sat and laid down on her bed, taking a few deep breaths so she might have any luck at all at figuring out how she was supposed to do what had to be done.

So when Walter came knocking and entered to find her there still, pondering, he came to sit with her. It made her feel that much more at ease to have him there, and she ever so innocently tugged at his arm until he would lie down next to her and she could rest her head on his shoulder and cosy up to him.

"Everyone happy to see you?" he asked, and she smiled.

"They were," she confirmed.

"But..." he guessed.

"Now that I'm here, and they know, even though I'm still on the outs with the school, I need to get back on track with what I came here to do in the first place, to help the Doctor."

"And this is a problem?" he asked. She didn't answer. "It's a complication," he corrected, guessing. "Would it have anything to do with what you told me, before you left?" She might have pointed out that she hasn't actually left, but then from his side of it, she guessed she kind of had, so she left it alone; one way or the other, she knew what he was referring to.

"Yes," she eventually confirmed.

She hadn't been entirely forthcoming the last time, though she had given him enough so that he might get the big picture. She had told him how she had roots in Lima, roots that might be allowed to tangle or snap if anyone out there figured out where exactly she rooted from.

"There are only two of them missing now, who need to be brought into the loop, and I've been doing my best to stay away from them until now, but we're near the end now, and that needs to change."

Gemma sat up, sliding her hand between the mattress and the wall. The compartment hidden there was so seamless that only her hand knew to find it. When she pulled back and returned to Walter's side, she held a thin sort of tablet, which she tapped, calling up an image that filled the screen.

"This is me and my grandmother when I was five years old. I'd been to see her at the theater before, I know, but this is from the first one that I really still remember."

On the picture, the five-year-old Gemma was perched on a tabletop, in front of a lit mirror, arms wrapped around an older woman's neck, who smiled as much as she did. In the mirror's reflection they could just see Gemma's mother and the camera who had captured the moment without telling them.

"Her name is Rachel Berry, and she's who I have to convince next." Walter looked at the picture in awe, then to Gemma and back at the picture once more.

"Your grandmother goes to McKinley," he said, and she nodded. "Your grandmother is a teenager," he added, and now she smacked his arm with a chuckle. "I'm sorry, it's just I'm trying to imagine my own grandparents as teenagers and I can't do it..."

"It wasn't easy, those first few days, seeing her, seeing all these people I would later grow up referring to as uncles and aunts whenever I got to see them, pretending they were strangers... I was so all over the place, it's a miracle I was allowed to stay in the school," she had to smile, still looking at the picture, touching it, letting the happy, loving faces grow wider.

"And that other one, the last one you have to tell, is he your grandfather," he asked, even though he felt he already knew the answer, going off of what she'd already said.

"No, he's not," she turned off the tablet. She didn't want to say too much on tbe matter, even to him, because it felt too much like he might say something that would change one thing or another, but... "I never knew him," she revealed. "He was... out of their lives by the time I was born."

She didn't want to say he was dead. Didn't want to risk it getting back to him, or her grandmother. She might never have met him until she'd travelled back here in December, but she'd heard countless stories over the years, from her grandmother and her aunts and uncles, and if she could have saved him somehow she would... but she knew the rules, knew the risks, not only for her and her family but for the world in general. Once upon a time she might have wanted the Doctor to save her grandfather from that accident when her mother was ten, but the Doctor had made sure she understood why it couldn't be. She wouldn't have granted her the vortex manipulator otherwise.

"So what does it matter whether you keep away from him or not?" Walter asked. Gemma didn't want to say how much it hurt to see him, to not be able to tell him what was coming for him, even if it wasn't to change history, even if it was only to make him... enjoy his time, or something like that... Instead, she gave the other, equally as valid reason.

"I'd only run the risk of it getting back to my grandmother. It's better she be clued in first." Walter said nothing, but when she looked back at him, he was smiling. "What?" she gave a hesitant smile back.

"You really care about her, that's all. I can tell," he nodded to her face, and she breathed out, leaning up to him again.

"You have no idea... I mean, I don't mean to brag, but Nana's the best... It wouldn't be as weird to say if I didn't see her as a teenager every day..."

TO BE CONTINUED (TOMORROW)


	16. Perry & Lucas

**"The Theater, The Theatre"**

**16. Perry & Lucas**

_New York City, in the year 2053_

On those nights when it was just the two of them, it seemed, Sophie would find her daughter in a constant state of mischief. She could hardly keep her in one place for very long that she suddenly was flying off elsewhere. Getting her in the tub for her bath required some amount of trickery and play, but then Sophie was an ace at getting the girl to cooperate.

And after she had her clean and snuggled in the rabbit-eared towel her mother had gotten her last Christmas, little Gemma was all but sinking and ready for bedtime. The last hurdle, after getting her into her PJ's, was to detangle her hair; that was the big one. If anyone doubted Gemma Lucas' voice would ever swell to match her grandmother's, they only had to go up to her with the comb.

Thankfully, Sophie had a trick; it was one her own mother had used on her when she'd been little.

"Sit still and let me get the knots out of your hair, and I'll tell you a story," she looked her in the eyes, and soon there was that old Lucas sparkle.

"The Doctor and the Teacher?" she asked.

"Would it be anything else?" Sophie asked back, and within seconds Gemma was sitting up straight, squeezing her eyes and fists shut and bracing herself.

She still squeaked every time Sophie didn't manage not to tug, but she endured for the most part, until Sophie could lean down and kiss the top of her head, signalling that they were all done.

"Now the story?" she asked, and when her mother nodded, she hurried to sit on her bed, ready to listen.

"Alright, baby bunny, let's do this," Sophie laughed, moving to join her.

The routine had started out of a story told while waiting out a rainstorm on the road back from visiting Lima when Gemma had been just barely three years old. She'd been napping her way along just fine, but then the storm had intensified, and the battering of the rain on the hood of the car had woken her up and caught her in a panic.

But then Sophie, who'd been riding in the back with her, had taken her out of her car seat, and sat her on her lap, back to chest, so that her long arms lined up with her daughter's shorter ones. And as she'd told the story, the first one of the Doctor and Teacher that Gemma had any real recollection of, if vague, she'd moved those little arms to mime along.

That was how they had to do it, always, although of course now it was made somewhat more difficult by the presence of her pregnant belly. Gemma would be careful, of course. She was already excited about the new baby, even before she'd known it would be a girl, a little sister her parents had already called Ginny.

"Any requests tonight?" Sophie asked, sweeping her daughter's shower fresh wet hair over her shoulder. Gemma knew the stories well already, and if her mother or grandmother ever forgot or skipped a part, she would be sure to point it out.

"Mommy, I have a question," Gemma declared so pointedly that it made Sophie laugh.

"You do?" Sophie asked, her tone matched to the girl's.

"Yes. Are they real?" Gemma asked.

"Who?" Sophie asked back.

"The Doctor and the Teacher, a-and the blue box," Gemma answered. Sophie smiled to herself, but she tipped the girl sideways so she'd fall back in her arms and look up, which got her a fit of giggles in return.

"Are they real? Are they real, you ask?" She met her daughter's eyes, leaning in, and she whispered. "I've met them." Gemma gasped. "That's right. And as stories go, I think it might be the best one, because it happened when it was you who was in here," she pressed her hand against her rounded belly, and Gemma added her hand along. "So you know what that means?"

"No," Gemma shook her head.

"It means that you were in the blue box once, even if you couldn't know that you were." Now Gemma was hooked.

"I was in the blue box?" she asked, her voice hushed with something like reverence.

"You were," Sophie smiled. "You remember what I told you about the Doctor, right? That the Doctor was often a man, but that the Doctor could also be a woman, when she changed." Sophie didn't know if it was her daughter's youth that gave her this ability to trust and believe, but she did not question in any way whether or not this was possible. If her mother said it was possible, then that was good enough.

"Yes," she nodded happily.

"Well when we met, she was a woman. And she saved us."

"She did?" Gemma was astounded.

"She did, she really did," Sophie promised.

"How?"

"Well..." Sophie hesitated, wondering how much she could tell the five-year-old, so not to traumatize her. "You and me, we were in danger. And the Doctor made so we weren't in danger anymore. Some days I think we owe her our lives."

Little Gemma didn't quite understand the gravity of a statement like this just yet. But she would remember it, and in time she would know enough.

"What about the Teacher?" Gemma asked, and Sophie smiled. Like her, when she'd been her age, Gemma would listen to the stories and find she very much liked the Teacher, wanted to be like her someday. "You met her, too?"

"Now, hold on, if you want the story, you have to hear it from the beginning, don't you?" Sophie asked, and eventually Gemma nodded. "Alright, then that is what you're going to get, baby bunny. This is the story of how the Doctor and Nana saved the theater."

"Nana, too?" Gemma gasped.

"Nana, too," Sophie smiled.

TO BE CONTINUED (TODAY)


	17. Wandering

**"The Theater, The Theatre"**

**17. Wandering**

_Inside the TARDIS_

She'd tried to stay focused on her book, she really had. She knew she wasn't being told everything, but at the same time, if the Doctor wanted her to sit things out so her baby would be safe, she wasn't about to argue. She'd been determined that she would sit in her seat, for as long as she had to, and she would real, possibly eat her snack, and that would be that. That had been the plan.

Except she was in the TARDIS. She was in the blue box, the one she'd been hearing about and dreaming about for the better part of her life. When was she ever likely to have that opportunity again?

She'd reread the same paragraph, possibly, for the sixth time before she realized she'd been looking up, scanning the room, which was what required for her to have to reread the said paragraph. Eventually she'd put her book down, dug into her snacks so she'd have an excuse to keep looking around as she ate. But then it wasn't enough anymore. So she'd gotten up, and she'd started slowly walking around as she ate. She'd walked all around the console, and then right out of there, into a hallway she'd spotted as she came about.

She hadn't gone all that far. By all the stories she'd heard, she knew this place was bigger than she could imagine, and she didn't fancy getting lost, not when she had a tendency to either tire out or require a pit stop at the nearest bathroom a lot more often than she had once done. Even for what little she had seen, she had to admit, it was enough for a few good memories to hold on to.

So with her curiosity satisfied, she'd turned back to return to the first room, to her chair, and to her book. Only when she'd found herself back there, she'd discovered she wasn't alone. There was a stranger standing near the console, a woman, and when Sophie saw her, with the knowledge that she was meant to be alone, and that there were strange things, possibly dangerous things, happening out past the blue doors, which were meant to keep her safe, she reacted in the only way she knew to: she let out a cry of surprise, which was enough to startle the stranger and make _her_ cry out as well, standing back, until her eyes centered on Sophie, and she relaxed.

"Oh… Sorry, didn't meant to startle you, I didn't think… anyone would be here, I…"

"Don't move," Sophie commanded.

"I won't hurt you," the woman promised.

"You're not any character from any production I've ever heard of, and trust me, my mother's Rachel Berry, I know my Broadway. So you're not an apparition, you're real, and it's going to hurt like hell when I hit you in the head with this bottle," she held up her water. "I won't miss, so you tell me who you are and how you got in here… and what you're doing here," she added.

"That's a lot of questions," the woman remarked after a few seconds. Sophie straightened her aim. "Alright, alright," the woman held up her hands. "I really meant it, you know, when I said I wouldn't hurt you? I'm a friend of the Doctor's. I wouldn't be in here like this if I wasn't." Sophie didn't want to let go of the control she had, but she had to wonder if the woman told the truth.

"How do I know you're really not lying?"

"Well, the TARDIS doesn't mind me, and believe me, you'd know if she did," the woman lightly tapped the console, and Sophie swore the ambient noises briefly sounded like a dog that was being petted. Now she was really wondering…

"What's your name?" she asked. The woman smiled.

"I'm not sure I should be telling you. There's… well, let's say there's a lot of power in that."

"Are you… her… Are you the Teacher?" The woman looked just a bit cornered, like she didn't know if she should speak or not, and that was all Sophie needed to see. "You are, aren't you?" she took a step forward.

"One day you'll remember this moment and you'll laugh," the woman said at first, "But, yes, I'm… I'm the Teacher, if that's what you call me," she nodded, and Sophie didn't know what it was about declaring this that amused the woman, but she almost didn't care. The Doctor wouldn't tell her if she was real or not, but now here was this woman, and the more time went on, the more she was positive it was really her, and that meant she was real.

"This might sound strange, but… my mother would tell me stories about you and the Doctor when I was little," she admitted. "I didn't know you were all real, not until today. I just thought you were stories she made up, but… you're not," she sniffled. "Sorry, I'm kind of all over the place these days," she tried to brush the tears off before they became too noticeable.

"Quite alright to," the Teacher promised, smiling and indicating Sophie's belly. The soon-to-be mother beamed and rested her hands over it.

Part of Sophie wanted to confide in how she used to practically pray to her and the Doctor both, so they might bring back her father, but she didn't want to come off that way in front of her, this woman who'd been something of a hero to her when she'd been little. There was so much she wanted to say to her, to ask her, and she couldn't decide where to start, or…

"I should get out of here," the Teacher said.

"Wait, I…"

"I wasn't even supposed to come, but it's safe in here, and…" She stopped talking, looking to Sophie instead. "Don't tell anyone I was here, please? Not even the Doctor. It's a long story."

"But…"

"It was nice to meet you," the Teacher nodded. "Really, it was."

And just like that, with a tap at something on her arm, the Teacher was gone, and Sophie was alone again. She was almost dizzy with the sudden turn around, the Teacher's departure. Now she'd had all the excitement she might ever want. She sat back down, still a bit dazed, and she breathed, and eventually she picked up her book. She doubted she'd make much progress, not now that she had just met… her…

TO BE CONTINUED (TOMORROW)


	18. Deeper Connections

**"The Theater, The Theatre"**

**18. Deeper Connections**

_New York City, in the year 2047_

The Doctor wondered how the people of the theater would have reacted, if they'd brought back any other ghost but Young Cosima. Here was a young girl, a child, in every bit defenseless and needy looking, and she might not have been 'real' but she had the image of someone who was, and the reflex was to respond to her in consequence. She was a child, and children needed to be cared for.

Still, there was the situation still at hand, and the ghosts' taking a side, away from them, had complicated matters. The Doctor insisted that they should give the ghosts some more time to consider her offer, that some if not all of them would come around. So although some of them did keep talking it out, in hushed tones kept to corners, others would sit or walk around in silence.

Chloe Clarke had taken it upon herself to look after the ghost girl. Or possibly it was that Young Cosima had taken to her, and it made it easier to keep her feeling safe that way. Chloe was very familiar with Rise, and she had some suspicions that the reason the girl was so at ease to trust her was because of her hair, which bore some resemblance – though her own volume of ginger curls was in a class all its own – to that of Alice Botley, who had played Catriona, Cosima's friend and benefactor, at the same time Annabeth Simms had played Young Cosima.

"Here, can you… can you sit?" Chloe asked as she sat on the ground, crossing her legs. Of course the girl had been walking about, so her feet could stay to the ground, but she had this image in her head like she might try to sit and end up sinking through the floor. But the girl came and sat, imitating her stance, and Chloe laughed. "Well, I'm Chloe," she realized she hadn't introduced herself. "I'm an actress," she went on, and Young Cosima's face lit up with a smile of wonder.

"I saw a play once. Miss Catriona and I snuck in, where it's high and no one can see us," she pointed, and Chloe chuckled. She knew this already; this was where the Angel would first reveal herself to Cosima, where before she had observed from the shadows. After a moment of silence, the girl had gotten up the courage to ask the thing that had been on her mind for a few minutes already. "Chloe? What were those things, on the walls? The faces in the squares… There was one that looked just like me, with the Angel."

"It was just a picture," Chloe smiled. "I guess it's not something you're familiar with, is it?" she pondered, getting a shake of the head from the child. "Look," she reached for her bag, on a seat nearby, fishing through it until she had her phone. Young Cosima came nearer, the better to see, and she watched in wonder as Chloe tapped her fingers against the square and it lit up with colors, with words and numbers, and then with an image, just like she'd said. "This is me with my little brother," she showed the phone. Young Cosima reached out, wanting to touch the thing and make it change, like Chloe had done.

But of course her fingers couldn't rest against it, instead burying themselves inside the square before she pulled her hand away, sitting back in defeat. Chloe felt bad, even more so for knowing that she couldn't hug her or give her shoulder a reassuring squeeze of any kind. She put the phone down on the ground.

"I'm sorry, I… I forgot." Young Cosima said nothing. "I know you must be scared right now."

"I'm not scared," the girl spoke defensively, and Chloe knew she would, of course; she'd fended for herself a long time before Catriona had come and found her.

"I only mean we don't know what's happening, how you and those other people ended up here, and with how you can't touch anything… I'd be scared," she confided, hoping it would allow the child to know it was okay for her to be scared. She did relax some, though she didn't admit to any amount of fear.

They had kept on talking, and Chloe wondered if her leg was acting up, from being sat on the ground for so long. She'd had a small fracture months ago, which had sidelined her for a while, but she was better now, it was just today… She stretched out her leg and, in doing so, she'd accidentally given a kick at her bag, which made it fall forward and spill half its contents on the ground. Chloe sighed and sat up to right it and get everything back in.

Her bag felt strange to touch, like she couldn't quite grasp it, and she frowned, wondering if her eyes were playing a trick on her, too.

Seeing her struggle, Young Cosima had reflexively scooted over to help, forgetting her own condition. Only when she'd reached for the lipstick that had rolled a few inches away, her fingers had found purchase, and she had picked it up, offering it back to Chloe and not thinking much of it. But the other girl stared in awe, first at the girl's hand, and then her face.

"H-How did you do that?" Chloe asked, and now Young Cosima saw it, and she startled, dropping the lipstick and tripping herself up, only to stop herself by grasping to the seats they'd been sitting next to. She was speechless. But then when Chloe had tried to raise herself up with those seats, her hands had first sunk into them before she'd tried again and been able to hold on. Even then, she was too weak to pick herself up and she only sat back down.

"Chloe?" Young Cosima blinked, panicked that she might have somehow done something to her new friend.

"You should stand back," George came toward them then. He didn't sound harsh toward the child, only concerned for his girlfriend.

"Stand back? Get her out of here," Mackenzie Rios jumped in.

"Now, that is not the answer," the Doctor tried to speak for the girl. Rachel had hurried to Chloe's side; she was as good as a second daughter to her.

"Sorry, Doctor, whatever your name is, but look what that ghost did," Jamie indicated Chloe.

"Oh, Jamie, not you, too," the Doctor sighed.

"This is what they'll do to all of us if they can get to us, isn't it?" Tom blinked.

"Little girl, come here," Mackenzie turned to Young Cosima, who looked overtly and shamelessly frightened now. She obeyed, because that was what she knew to do. But then the woman opened the door of the auditorium. Mackenzie pointed into the hall. Young Cosima looked back to the others, still huddled around Chloe, who had still not said a word, and with a sniffle, she had stepped through the door, which closed behind her.

TO BE CONTINUED (TOMORROW)


	19. Fight For

**"The Theater, The Theatre"**

**19. Fight For**

_June 2012 – Lima, Ohio_

The way she knew it, the way she'd experienced it, she had last set foot in this building no later than three days ago, but in everybody else's case, it was a different matter. To everyone else, it had been several weeks, days upon days where she hadn't appeared to teach her classes, with no explanation why. So she expected the looks and the whispers as she walked through the halls of McKinley High; that was why she'd timed her arrival and made certain she would have a certain amount of privacy as she rounded on Figgins' office. She would have time later to answer everyone's multiple and likely repetitive questions.

Her grandmother had told her about the principal, whenever she'd told her about the Glee Club, and when she marched into his office, she was in every way the granddaughter of Rachel Berry.

When she'd first returned and discovered the mess she'd gotten herself into, when she'd learned she had been fired, it was as though something in her had deflated, like she had failed. But then the Glee Club had come along, her adolescent future extended family, and they had filled her with a second wind. She was going to get her job back. They hadn't gotten this far, this close to the end to just give up.

Her methods had worked the first time around, and she saw no point to alter it. The first time, as determined as she'd been, she had hesitated about it, just barely. Now she had no hesitation, no doubt.

Right about now, Figgins would already be wading in despair, finding himself suddenly and frustratingly short one teacher. Gemma didn't know whether the man had specified how he had won the tickets for a three-week cruise when he would have called to inform the school that he would he away, but he would have called by now, she knew, as much as she knew Figgins wouldn't have had time to call in for a sub just yet. That was where she came in.

She saw the look on the principal's face when he realized she was there, and for a moment she could spot out his anger, but by the time she ended up seated across from him, his face had gone on lockdown.

He didn't want to let her get the upper hand, but she already had it and he didn't even know it. Within a minute of her explaining herself, she was in tears, and his face was twitching. By the time he passed her the tissues, she knew she had him. And by the time she left his office, she was back on payroll.

Her tears had already stopped when she turned her back on him, and one quick fix to her makeup in the bathroom was all she needed.

She only just got out back into the hall that she nearly collided with Will Schuester.

"Woah, sorry, I didn't see you there, I… Ginny?" he was about as surprised as she would have expected him to be.

"Hey…" she tried to sound casual.

"Are you alright? We've been worried about you, what…" he started to ask, but she held up her hands so he'd stop. "Sorry, I guess that's personal," he tipped his head, and she let out a breath.

"It is," she went with it. "But I'm back now, it turns out, for the rest of the school year, so… yeah," she smiled. She had expected some awkwardness, yes, but this was exceeding expectations. All she wanted now was for someone to come along and give her a reason to cut the conversation short. What she got instead was overtime.

"You're back!" She turned just as Emma Pillsbury came skittering toward her. She looked like she might have thrown her arms around her and hugged her tight, but then this was Emma, and Gemma could at least count on her respecting the idea of boundaries, seeing as they didn't know each other that well – as far as she knew. In the future, this would of course be something else entirely, but the guidance counselor couldn't know that.

"Yes, I am, and as I was just telling Will here," Gemma turned back to nod to the show choir director, "The reason for my absence isn't exactly… something I'm comfortable talking about right now, so I hope you understand, and…"

"Ginny?" She let out a breath. She was already surrounded by two shocked people, so she could have done without a third, but then here she came nonetheless. Coach Beiste surpassed the other two, coming up and wrapping the shorter woman in a caring embrace, and as surprised as it left her, Gemma had to smile, hugging her back.

"Hey, Coach," she greeted her. Once again she had to use her excuse, that her unplanned exit from McKinley was something she meant to keep to herself and not air out for all to know. Shannon Beiste was more than understanding, though whether she wouldn't later try to get the words out of her, the better to 'let it all out' was anyone's guest.

It took some time more before Gemma could extract herself from the trio, but when she did it was just in the nick of time, because she'd spotted her, down the hall. Her young future grandmother was walking away from her locker.

"Miss Berry!" Gemma called up, not too loud, only enough to be heard. When Rachel turned around, Gemma caught up to her, breathing out.

"Miss Harrison, you're back?" she remarked.

"I am, yes, as of today," Gemma confirmed. "Listen, I imagine you're on your way to class now, so I won't keep you long, but I was hoping you and I would get a chance to talk."

"Me?" Rachel asked, surprised; to her recollection, she had never really spoken to the substitute all that much, except for that time when she'd subbed in for Mr. Schue in Glee Club. "What is it?"

"In private," Gemma specified, indicating a nearby empty classroom. Rachel looked only slightly suspicious. In the end, she had followed the teacher's request and they'd gone into the room, where Gemma shut the door behind them.

TO BE CONTINUED (TODAY)


	20. Ties That Bind

**"The Theater, The Theatre"**

**20. Ties That Bind**

_June 2012 – Lima, Ohio_

In all these months, Gemma honestly had no recollection of having a single conversation with the girl who would grow to be her grandmother. She had spoken to her, sure, as any teacher might speak to one of their students, but she'd done everything in her power to keep those exchanges short. The hardest had been to sit in that choir room, to watch and listen to her as she performed and not get wrapped up in chills and tears.

Now it was just the two of them, alone and behind closed doors, and Gemma didn't see how much she struggled to start speaking until the girl broke the silence.

"Miss Harrison? Is everything okay?"

_You're my grandmother, but you're young enough to be my little sister right now, so you tell me._

"No… I mean, yes, I… Sorry," she made herself laugh in order to break the tension, and it seemed to work. Rachel smiled… It was just like her mother's smile. No, she had to stay focused, couldn't go there. "It's been a long day," she excused herself.

"It's not even lunch yet," Rachel pointed out, her tone as good as asking if everything really was okay.

"I wanted to ask you if you'd noticed anything strange," Gemma started, then, "You know, besides me," she joked, giving the tension a bit more of a loosening.

"Weird how?" Rachel asked, and Gemma had to give her credit for not just turning and running off. True, she had a good idea of how to play her young grandmother, to grasp her curiosity with an air of mystery, but she was too used to their 'seniority' being inverted that she had trouble adjusting to the opposite.

"I thought you might have noticed… it's your Glee Club," she went on, and Rachel stared on.

"What about it?"

"I wasn't sure, I thought you might have been in on it, whatever they're up to…"

"Someone's up to something? Who?" she stepped forward, and Gemma's reflex was to step back. If ever she or her sister had ever done anything wrong and their grandmother was there to catch them, she'd have a look in her eyes that wasn't entirely dissimilar to the one she wore now.

_Come on, Lucas, you're the adult here._

"I couldn't say exactly. That's what I was hoping you might be able to tell me. I know many of you are about to graduate. The last thing I'd want would be for any of you to get mixed up in anything that might jeopardize your diplomas, you understand?"

"I do," Rachel nodded. "I want to thank you for letting me know and giving me a chance to sort things out," she added, and Gemma tapped her shoulder.

"Just… be careful." Rachel looked at her, and Gemma was briefly concerned that she might be looking at her and recognizing… something. Already on this day she had come face to face with her mother in the past which was future here, her pregnant mother with a soon-to-be-born Gemma Jane Lucas in her belly… She'd looked at her that way, too… Gemma had seen some odd days in the days since she'd started travelling with the Doctor, but this one… This one took the prize.

After Rachel had gone, Gemma had left the school. She needed to get her plans in order if she had classes to teach again. She'd been gone a while, and now nothing she had was good anymore. She had to start from scratch, and she couldn't do that here, where everyone would want to know where she'd gotten off to. Better that she went back to her apartment and worked from there while she could.

On her way there, she couldn't stop thinking about them, her young mother, her even younger grandmother… Being away from home and all those she loved had never been easy, even when it was only for such a time until the Doctor took her back to New York for a visit. But this tour in Lima, over half a year… That had been the hardest. Surely, when they went back to New York again it would not have been as long for them as it had been for her, but…

The separation had only helped to keep her determined and stay away from Rachel, but it could only go so far when it came to seeing her, and to know who she would grow to become, just as she knew that if she didn't keep away, all those memories she held about her wouldn't get to exist… just like her.

At least now she had been able to start her on the path. She knew she would, that she had to… it was all in the stories. It was still a plan with a level of uncertainty, arguably speaking. She had unleashed Rachel Berry on them, with very little information. It remained to be seen whether or not the others would understand the opening she'd given them and act in consequence. They were running out of time; she knew that more than anything. But it felt right, it always had.

She hadn't gotten any messages from the Doctor since she'd come back to Lima and discovered the time she'd lost. She'd thought for sure the Time Lady would have had something to say on the matter, but there'd been nothing, not even now as she returned to her apartment.

No notes was generally considered as a good sign, that everything was still on track, but for Gemma, it didn't feel that way, not here and now. She'd messed up, she knew she had, but the Doctor didn't appear to think the same.

There was nothing for her to do now but to busy herself at reasserting her position at McKinley. Even if she only needed to be Ginny Harrison for a little while longer, she had to do right by her, by all of them. She had been very lucky to get this second chance with Figgins; she would not get a third.

Still, after a time, her work fell briefly to abandon as she sought out the tablet, with the pictures, the videos, the memories of lives not yet begun.

TO BE CONTINUED (TOMORROW)


	21. Divided We Fade

**"The Theater, The Theatre"**

**21. Divided We Fade**

_New York City, in the year 2047_

It had not been a sensation she had been in any way used to or wanting to prolong for any more time than she really had to, but she had kept to it, and now she was glad to have done it. When Cassie stepped out of the wall she'd been standing in, even though there was nothing in her that was tangible or had any way to resist, she had still taken a breath of relief… and then she'd dashed back to rejoin the others.

They had debated whether or not to send someone to keep an ear on those people who were 'real,' unlike them, but even if they had decided not to do it, Cassie didn't see how she could have stayed away. Something had happened to bring them here and make them like this, and they would never get to fix that if they sat and did nothing.

So when the decision had been made, she had jumped on the opportunity to go ahead and do it. Brian had wanted to come with her, but the others agreed one was best for now. Cassie had gone alone, and there she had figured out her wall plan. The fact that her body had nothing to resist passing through didn't matter, it still felt wrong, unnerving, and she was glad it was done. Now she had something to report back.

Most of them were sat on the ground, for lack of any other means to get off their feet. Only two remained standing when she arrived. Brian, of course, was pacing nervously, waiting for her. Then the Angel was calmly moving along the wall, looking at each picture, scrutinizing them. Cassie didn't notice the way she hovered along, not right away. But then she'd come to a stop and the Angel had looked at her before floating back down to the ground.

"I…" Cassie breathed, needing a moment to remember herself. But then it came back to her. "Something happened back there, I saw it." When she'd started hearing something like a problem, she'd leaned forward, just until her eyes had cleared the wall enough that she could see into the other room.

"What?" Mr. Bennett asked, scrambling to stand. He tried to hold to the wall, only to remember he couldn't touch it, but then Etta had helped him.

"The kid, the one who went with them…"

"Cosima," the Angel moved toward her.

"Yeah, that one," Cassie frowned; she still couldn't get over that woman. "She was talking with one of those guys, and… I don't know how it worked out, but all of a sudden that other one was becoming like us, and the… Cosima, she could pick things up, and touch them…

"So we can be returned corporeality," Lady Hanlon was equally fascinated, which was saying a lot, seeing as they were becoming increasingly aware of their faces being nearly identical. Cassie was not too crazy about this one either.

"We can become real again, yeah," she put it into her own words.

"Hold on though," Etta spoke up. "You said that other girl lost some of herself when Cosima got solid again. Was the girl okay?"

"I don't know, they were kind of all over her, so I couldn't see." Etta was shaking her head. "What?"

"It's pretty easy to see, we can only get ours by taking theirs, by hurting them."

"They'll be fine," Cassie frowned. "_We_ are."

"No," Etta went on shaking her head. "Whatever you're thinking of doing, just count me out," she shook her head. There wasn't going to be any changing her mind, no matter how they tried.

"Suit yourself," Brian came to stand by Cassie's side. "For all we know, they're the ones who did this to us. In case you haven't noticed, they're not like us, and they don't seem to be all that concerned."

"Exactly," Cassie agreed, empowered by Brian's jumping in.

"Do… Do you really think so?" Mr. Bennett hesitated, looking from the pair of them, to helpful Etta, who stood entirely opposed.

"It's the one explanation that's made sense thus far," Lady Hanlon stepped forward.

"I don't know," Prince James admitted. "But it might warrant some looking into at the very least."

"Good, yes," Cassie nodded. "So we have me, and Brian, her ladyship and his royal highness. How about you?" she asked Mr. Bennett. He pondered, awkward as always. "That'll be a no. Another no," she pointed toward Etta. What about you down there?" she asked Prisoner 0712. The woman looked up, having followed the conversation only in silence. She shook her head. "Fine. What about…" she turned back to the Angel, startling a bit when the woman's wings buffeted.

"I will go," she spoke.

"Excellent, aerial view. So that makes five of us in, and three out."

"What about the little girl?" 0712 spoke, her voice still low.

"She made her choice," Cassie shrugged. It was only when the prisoner pointed her finger slowly past them that they turned and saw Young Cosima standing there. She had already been frightened, but at hearing Cassie's words she'd started crying. Now when they looked at her, she turned and ran.

"What do we do?" Prince James asked.

"What do you think we can do, snatch her?" Cassie asked, swiping her arm through the solid wall for effect. "She's a kid, spooked and on her own. Trust me, she's no trouble. Now come on," she told the others who had chosen to follow, and after a last look to Etta, Mr. Bennett, and Prisoner 0712, they went away, veering through a wall, out of sight.

"What now?" Mr. Bennett asked.

"We should warn them," Etta offered.

"They can wait," 0712 said as she rose from the ground. "We should find the poor child."

TO BE CONTINUED (TOMORROW)


	22. Know Your Enemy

**"The Theater, The Theatre"**

**22. Know Your Enemy**

_New York City, in the year 2047_

It had all happened too fast for her to stop it. The Doctor had been looking to Chloe's condition while one of the others had taken it upon herself to expulse the ghost girl, and no one had opposed her. Now she could only look on to Mackenzie in dismay.

"That was not the right thing to do," the Doctor stared at her.

"And just what would have been the right thing, Doctor? Sitting here and waiting for the rest of us to be attacked this way?" she indicated Chloe, who was now sitting up, slightly less dazed than she'd been a moment before but not entirely better either.

"She was not attacked," the Doctor frowned. "The girl did nothing to her except to show what exposure might do to…" She knew what the woman would say in return, but it was too late to stop it now.

"Just so, Doctor. Letting them stay with us will only put us at risk. Whether they mean us harm or not is no matter. We need to treat this as contagion, and they are infected. If we can't leave the theater, then they can't be anywhere near us."

"Maybe we should…" Jamie spoke up, "Leave the theater, I mean."

"We can't," the Doctor shook her head.

"Why not?" Maggie asked.

"Because, as Sophie pointed out, there are nine of us, and nine of them. It's possible that our fates may be interconnected. If one of us is allowed to leave, I believe one of them will be as well." She turned to Mackenzie. "If you want to call it a contagion, then would you be so self-centered as to submit the entire population of this city and beyond to suffer as well?"

"That's why you locked down the doors, isn't it?" Rachel looked at her now, and the Doctor nodded. "If more people came, there might be even more ghosts…" She looked back down to Chloe, who was looking better yet but still fairly dazed. Part of her wanted to give in to that same side the others had, to want to keep away from the ghosts as much as possible, but then she wasn't like the others in that room; she had known the Doctor already, and what she could do and had done. She knew she could trust her, especially as she had taken priority to putting her daughter and future grandchild in a safe place. "What do we do?" she asked her. The Doctor stood back, thinking.

"The ghosts are not corporeal, not yet. They could come in here whenever they like, but they haven't. Why haven't they?" she asked herself. "Out of respect, or to bide their time?"

x

Out in a nearby hallway, the now not so non-corporeal Young Cosima sat huddled, crying. She didn't know where to turn anymore. The people in the other room didn't want her anymore, not after she'd hurt Chloe. She hadn't meant to do it, they had to know that, right? And then the others, the ones like her… they didn't want her either, because she'd left. Who did it leave her?

A ruffling sound and a gust of wind made her head shoot up and look around. She saw nothing, but she could still feel a presence.

"Who's there?" she asked, then feeling that same presence behind her, she turned and stumbled back in shock when she saw the pale angel standing there.

"Don't be afraid, it's only me," she promised, and she was indeed alone. Young Cosima stood, brushing her tears away with her sleeve. "Are you alright?" the Angel asked, and the girl shook her head.

"I don't know what I did, I swear. I didn't want to hurt her, I didn't want to hurt anyone, but I know I did… Chloe was nice to me, she showed me things, one of them had images on it, and I tried to touch it, but I couldn't."

"I know," the Angel nodded.

"But then I could… I-I can, see?" She went to a small stand nearby, where several stacks of pamphlets were lined up, and she took out one of them, bringing it to the Angel. There was no point in her reaching to take it from the girl, and she didn't try, but regardless, she accepted the demonstration, and it left her to wonder.

"Come with me, child," she held her arm out as though she meant to put it around her shoulders, and Young Cosima followed her.

They went to one of the doors. It was locked, like all the others, but this one only with a large sort of knob that needed to be turned to unlock before they could open the door itself; she'd seen that man do it the night before, as she vaguely recalled, the one back in the room with the 'real' ones.

"Can you turn that?" the Angel asked Young Cosima. The girl hesitated, but she reached out. Her hand came to rest on the knob, thanks to her new corporeality. But that was as far as she was able to go. When she attempted to turn the knob, it felt as though it burned, and she pulled away.

"I-I can't do it… I'm sorry."

"Don't apologize, it's alright," the Angel turned to her with a benevolent smile. "Now we know better."

"Can I come back now? Please? They don't want me in there," she pointed back to where they'd come from.

"I'm afraid it's grown more complicated now," the Angel shook her head, and Young Cosima bowed her head. "Cosima, look at me," the Angel instructed, for lack of ability to raise the girl's chin herself. When the watery eyes turned back up to her, the Angel's wings fluttered, fierce and protective. "I will get you away from here. I swear it."

TO BE CONTINUED (TODAY)


	23. Right or Left

**"The Theater, The Theatre"**

**23. Right or Left**

_June 2012 – Lima, Ohio_

It had come to the point where there were simply too many of them in the know to gather out in the open, in the halls, or the cafeteria, or really anywhere on school grounds. That was how it had come to be that the twelve of them had converged on a few neighboring tables pushed together in the middle of Breadstix. Artie had insisted that hiding in plain sight like this would be best, if they weren't going to use any of their homes. That option had been ruled out by process of elimination, so Breadstix it was.

They'd had a couple of days now to deal with Gemma being back, but still it had the potential to distract them, so Santana had taken it upon herself to bring up the topic which had really brought them together today.

"Okay, so I think we can all see where this is going, so who do you think's going to be next? Rachel or Finn?"

"Does it matter?" Quinn asked. "It'll be one, then the other," she shrugged.

"It does matter. One is probably going to be easy to bring in, he'll believe anything, but the other is going to be hard headed and impossible, you just watch. Say what you want, but I'd like to be able to brace myself first. That means it has to be her."

"Has to?" Mercedes asked.

"Who keeps the hard stuff for last?" Santana frowned.

"I agree Finn will be easier, but then that's exactly why Rachel should be last. When the Doctor finally comes, she'll be able to see for herself," Kurt pointed out. "We all will," he added after a beat.

"But what if it takes too long?" Sugar piped in.

"It doesn't matter what we think," Sam shook his head. "Gemma's the one who decides."

Just like that, the topic so deftly swept aside earlier was back at center stage.

It wasn't that they hadn't believed the explanation they'd been given. They understood how it could have happened, they accepted it… But then it couldn't erase everything else.

All those weeks ago, the first morning she hadn't shown up, they'd thought maybe she'd needed more time than expected to do some thing or another for the Doctor. It was either that or she'd decided to skip a day; they could all sympathize with that.

Then it was two days, and they first wondered if anything had gone wrong after all. But no matter how they tried to reach her, they got nothing.

On the third day, two things happened. At school, they overheard Mr. Schuester and Principal Figgins, which led them to understand that not only did they have no idea that 'Miss Harrison' was meaning to be away, but they had had about as much luck in attempting to reach her. It was worrisome, but how were they to know that it wasn't Doctor business again?

The second thing came in the form of Gemma's boyfriend, who'd managed to track Kurt down through Burt's garage. He knew the boy knew the truth, about Gemma, the Doctor, all of that, so he wondered if Kurt had heard from Gemma at all. Walter had assured Kurt that she hadn't been meant to be away this long. If Kurt and the rest of the Club had been concerned, it was nothing compared to Walter, and for that they'd confirmed their fears as reasonable.

Walter had been as glad to cooperate with them as they were with him. Numbers had been exchanged, the best they could do for the time being… What could they really do to find a time traveller who hadn't even been born yet? They had thought to reverse their way along her family tree, to find the Lucas family in New York, but by Walter's own knowledge, he couldn't see how they'd find her father, who wouldn't have been born either. The first living relatives would be grandparents, who couldn't be all that old themselves… and why would they know anything? It was a dead end. They couldn't find her, or the Doctor. They'd have to wait… maybe forever.

It wouldn't be a time where any of them felt at ease to discuss how it made any of them feel, not with each other. Some didn't want to admit it, and that was their choice.

But then there were also those of them who'd had a different experience with Gemma than the rest did. Sugar had found more relief than she could express, in being able to confide in someone her thoughts to her true self, and now she'd lost it. Artie had always felt privileged in having known her from the start, for the time they'd spent together when he was eight, and having her return had made him so glad that her disappearance weighed on him. Then there were those like Quinn, like Kurt, who had been entrusted with some truths over the others, and who almost felt like they should have been able to help… but they couldn't.

They had all been left thinking something terrible had happened to her, but they couldn't tell anyone, not their families, or the police, or Principal Figgins, who sounded so aggravated that they would have been amused if they weren't so scared.

"Fine, so it doesn't matter," Puck spoke, and they turned to him. "Whoever it is, she'll tell us. Let's just eat and get out of here."

They hadn't brought any of it up again for as long as they'd been there, not Gemma, not the Rachel or Finn debate. It had made for a quiet meal, and when it was done they had disbanded as covertly as they'd assembled.

It wasn't nearly as covert as Rachel Berry's endeavor. Not one of them had noticed her at all, reclined as far as she could allow herself without drawing attention to herself with those who sat on her side of the partition.

She'd told Miss Harrison she would look into what the others were up to, and they had made it easy enough for her to end up following them here, but now… She was more confused than ever.

What did they want with her and Finn? She'd nearly given herself away out of insult when they'd called her difficult, but then maybe they had a point… And who was this Gemma person who supposedly made all the decisions?

She had to find out more. She needed to talk to Miss Harrison again.

TO BE CONTINUED (TOMORROW)


	24. Flight of an Angel

**"The Theater, The Theatre"**

**24. Flight of an Angel**

_New York City, in the year 2047_

Rachel had been looking at her in the last couple of hours, and though these looks were not accompanied by spoken words, her eyes told the Doctor more than enough to understand. She was seeing what Rachel was seeing, too. The group was dividing.

It was not nearly all that surprising, she hated to admit, though it was true. The Doctor herself was still near to Chloe, as were Rachel, and George. Across the way, Mackenzie spoke with Maggie and Tom. Jamie stood near them, but his posture made it clear he wasn't entirely sure where he felt he should be standing. His gaze often turned back to the other four, but he didn't move, to one end or the other.

"Let me talk to them," Chloe spoke up, and the other three turned back to her. She'd been keeping fairly quiet since the incident with Young Cosima, but it wasn't to say that she wasn't conscious of her surroundings and the latest developments as they were aware of them.

But now she was trying to stand, and George, Rachel and the Doctor did their best to help her, which was saying a lot seeing as half the time their hands would pass through her and they'd have to try again. In the end she'd had to do it on her own, though it was a slower go. When she finally stood on her own feet, it was a wobbly stance but she was there, breathing out with relief.

"Hey," she called out to the four standing apart from them. When they turned and saw her standing there, they came nearer. It wasn't as though they were insensitive to what had happened to her, and seeing her as she stood there was the best thing they'd seen in some time already.

"How are you feeling?" Jamie asked.

"Like Silly Putty," Chloe frowned. "Look, this isn't right, how we're handling all this right now, us in here and the ghosts out there like they did something wrong."

"But they d…" Mackenzie started to say.

"Cosima didn't try to hurt me, it just happened. You didn't spend time with her the way I did, I know…" They looked like they wanted to argue again, and Chloe cut them off. "What kind of impression are we giving them if we try to shut them out?"

"They're the ones who left first," Jamie had to point out. "Earlier, we were all here, and they left. And when we came to ask if they would come back, they said no."

"All except the little girl," George countered. "And then you threw her out," his look was directed to Mackenzie.

"You would have let her stay, after what she did to Chloe?" the costumer countered.

"She didn't do it on purpose," George pointed out. "It could have been any one of us."

"You have no idea how far something like trust can go," the Doctor added. "Treat someone like they're the villain, the beast… the plague…" she shook her head, "What must they think of us?" Again, they said nothing. "Rather than standing apart, we should stand together, if we hope to understand what's happened. Something has made that these people appeared here today, it didn't just happen, did it? But no, we're too busy drawing lines in the sand to try and understand."

"You're the one who said what would happen if they left," Mackenzie eventually countered.

"Yes, I did," the Doctor could hardly deny it.

"But you expect us to bring them in here anyway?" Tom shook his head. They were starting to sway the argument back on to their side, and the Doctor knew every time they did this, it would only get harder to tip it once more to the other side, her side.

"If you care for them so much, maybe you should go and join them," Mackenzie crossed her arms.

"Stop it!" Rachel cut in. "We're not getting anywhere behaving like this. Listen to the Doctor, she knows what she's talking about, I promise."

"You're so sure, then go with her," Mackenzie was not letting go, but now the others were staring at her with an odd sort of hesitation about them that the Doctor didn't understand. Rachel was frowning.

"You're forgetting yourself, Mac. Don't think I'd be above firing you. This is still my theater."

"It's yours, really?" the Doctor muttered, while the costumer looked briefly chastened. Rachel gave a silent nod. "No wonder she had the key then..." she continued to herself.

"Do what you need to do," Mackenzie tried to sound braver than she felt in that moment; she didn't really want to lose this job. "But I won't have those ghosts use us to get out of here."

They hadn't heard a thing, not until it was too late. One moment they'd all been entirely focused on the face off of sorts that was happening between Rachel and Mackenzie, the next they heard Chloe cry out, and they turned, momentarily frozen out of shock.

She had to have flown in from above, they couldn't say. All they could say, all they could see, was how the pale woman with Rachel's face now had a hold of the young woman with the mass of red curls, and somehow she had her in a solid grip as they gained altitude.

"Chloe!" George shouted. He was looking for something to do, they all were, but the Angel had Chloe in her grasp, and she had wings…

"Bring her down, she's done you no wrong!" the Doctor called after her.

The Angel said nothing, though her eyes did find those other eyes that were just like hers, just as Chloe slipped from her hands. They might have thought for a moment that she'd let go, and the gasps and cries of alarm that followed showed that was what they believed had happened. But as she was falling Chloe was screaming, and the sound was still heard… as she reached the ground and disappeared through it, unimpeded. Meanwhile, the Angel had flown to the balcony, where her feet found the ground, and she pulled the doors open before she ran.

TO BE CONTINUED (TOMORROW)


	25. Lucas & Twelve

**"The Theater, The Theatre"**

**25. Lucas & Twelve**

_New York City, in the year 2070_

She didn't know exactly when she'd gotten it in her head to do this, but if she had to give it a guess, it would have to have started as far back as when she was all of nine or ten years old. She would listen to her mother tell her little sister, who would have been four or five at the time, all about her own dear childhood friends, the Doctor and the Teacher. But where Gemma had taken to them and listened to each story in a sort of enraptured way, her sister Ginny had never been nearly as interested. She preferred the same old stories every other boy or girl would grow up listening to. In some ways, Gemma had been okay with that. It meant she could keep her friends to herself.

Even though Ginny did not care as much for them though, their mother would often dip back into that well, whenever she told them stories, and at that time of being nine or ten, Gemma had figured out something she had never caught on to before. Maybe it was that she'd been too young before, and the bigger picture had just gone over her head, but as she listened to the tales of the Doctor and the Teacher now, she was taken with the growing impression that there was more to the stories, that they might have hit closer to home than she'd realized.

Her mother wouldn't confirm or deny it at first, nor would her grandmother, and they should know, shouldn't they? The stories had always only ever come from either of them. But they'd only give her a small indulgent smile and send her off to play.

And then one day, just because it had dawned on her that she hadn't done it before, she'd asked her father. One day, he'd told her the words that would forever change her life. She had asked him about the stories, and the Doctor and the Teacher and where they'd come from, and he'd pulled her up to sit next to him before whispering to her in a sort of conspiratorial tone that they weren't just a story. This much Gemma had known, for a few years already, and she told her father that much, and about how her mother had said the Doctor had saved them.

"She saved a lot of people, didn't she?" Gemma had asked. Her father had looked at her, his eyes on her but his mind so far in the past.

"I'm sure she has, but you… you and your mother… We might have lost you both that day, and then I wouldn't have you, or your sister… If you ask me, we owe her our family."

In the years that followed, Gemma had carried those words with her, whether she realized it or not. _We owe her our family._ It was one thing to look at all those stories she'd heard from the perspective that they were make believe, meant to carry both Gemma and Ginny Lucas to sleep, to dreams. It was another entirely to set them in the real world, where the danger didn't go away if you shut your eyes, covered your ears, or hid and told your mother not to go on telling. So when her parents said that the Doctor had saved them, it meant they had actually been in mortal danger, that they could have died, if not for her. This would eventually grow to exist in Gemma's mind as meaning that everything she was, that she had been allowed to be born at all, was in some way dependent of the alien who could change her face, or his face.

And without really deciding so much as only doing it, Gemma had begun to search for the Doctor. What she would do if or when it happened, she didn't know, and she might not know until it happened, but she was going to do it. She would find the Doctor and the Teacher, and her family's debt would be expressed somehow. For a long time her search consisted of looking on the internet, or on the news, anywhere, for reports that might have had anything to do with them, or sightings of the blue box. She'd quickly discovered she wasn't the only one seeking the mysterious Doctor. That might have been encouraging if anyone else out there had any luck of their own, but they didn't.

As discreet as she'd always been about the whole thing, never telling her parents, or her sister, or her grandmother, her search had not remained entirely undiscovered. But then the one person that had found out was not just anyone; it was her uncle Arthur.

Her grandmother called him Artie, but to Gemma he had always been uncle Arthur, and when he'd found her out for seeking out the Doctor, he had surprised her in revealing that he had met them, too, the Doctor and the Teacher. Not only that, but he'd done just as she was doing, he'd tried to find them. Though he hadn't found them of his own accord, he had seen them again, so when he gave her some pointers, she did listen as best she could. Maybe it would help her get to her goal.

The years had carried on though, and she might not have given up on her search, but it was coming to feel entirely hopeless. Now here she was, twenty-three years old, and as the Doctor would one day assure her that it was fairly amusing, Gemma's luck changed on the day of her little sister's high school graduation.

She'd worked late the night before, and so naturally she'd woken up late. She had rushed to get herself ready, taking the fastest shower she'd ever taken, getting hair and makeup done as though she'd been sat on a chair and given a good spin. She was still fixing up her dress by the time she'd gotten down to the street and hailed a cab. It might have been the first relaxing breath she'd taken in the time since she'd woken, and her head had lolled back against the seat as they drove on.

Had she not been sitting exactly as she was, exactly where she was, at exactly this moment, she might not have seen it. But she did, and when she did, there was no doubt to it.

"Stop the car!" she'd blurted out, sitting up but never breaking eye contact with the blue box perched up on a roof across the street.

She didn't remember if she'd paid the driver or not, but he hadn't followed her, which either meant she had paid him, or she looked so crazed he hadn't bothered and simply been glad for being rid of her. All she cared about for now was to make it up to that box and hope it, and its occupants, would still be there when she arrived. She had to be buzzed in, and when the door had opened, her thoughts had briefly gone to her family, to her sister, and she hoped she would not end up missing out. They'd have to understand, right? This was the Doctor and the Teacher…

She arrived at the roof, out of breath and then knocked for a few more breaths, when she came to a stop and saw it sitting there, just as her mother and grandmother had always described it… the blue box.

It sat all alone there on the roof for a moment, and she was still hesitating as to how she was meant to proceed when the woman stepped into view.

She'd been standing behind it before, as far as Gemma could tell, and it was not her arrival which had brought her into view. The woman walked along the roof, slowly, with a strange sort of object in her hands. She kept adjusting knobs and switches, muttering to herself as she looked to the sky, where her object was pointed. She would stop, shake her head and mutter some more, and then she'd make more adjustments. If this wasn't her, then…

"Oh!" the woman had startled when she'd turned and found her there. "Hello," she greeted her now. "It's alright, I have the right to be here, I… I'm running experiments, see?" she reached into her pocket and produced a piece of paper proclaiming her as Jane Smith, a meteorologist. Gemma smirked, wondering if this was where she had acquired her middle name.

"Sure," she nodded. The woman 'Jane Smith' stared at her a moment, taking a step forward.

"May I help you with something?"

"Actually, I think I'm here to help _you_. My name is Gemma Lucas, I think you knew my parents, and before them my grandmother, too."

TO BE CONTINUED (TODAY)


	26. City Lights

**"The Theater, The Theatre"**

**26. City Lights**

_New York City, in the year 2047_

The Angel knew where she was meant to go now. She had made her promise, and she was not one to go back on her word. There was still the door she had attempted to get opened with Young Cosima. It hadn't worked with her, but now maybe this would change. She was not so foolish as to think she had time to spare; people would come looking for her.

At the door, she took hold of the lock and made the turn. It did not hurt her the way it had done the girl, and in fact once the lock had clicked, the Angel only had to push the handle... And there was the open world waiting for her. She tucked her wings down, in such a way that they blended with her dress, and she stepped forward.

Night had fallen in the hours they'd spent inside, and New York was alight and alive. The Angel was overwhelmed by all of it, the lights, the sounds... It was almost too much for her to bear, and she moved along for a few seconds, her eyes tearing at the brightness all around her.

It was too much, and just for a moment she thought to run, to take flight, but in the next moment she remembered the girl, and she made to stop... which nearly caused her to run into the young man headed in her direction.

"Mrs Per... Berry," he blinked shaking his head. He still couldn't help getting mixed up, even after two years of dating her daughter. Of course in that instant, it had been somewhat distracting to see her. "Why are you dressed like that?" he couldn't help but ask.

The Angel stared at him, confused as to who the young man was and what he wanted with her.

Who he was, of course, was Julian Lucas. He had more than expected an icy welcome from Sophie's mother, if she'd told her about the fight, which naturally she would have, but this was beyond the call of duty. Sophie's mother was looking at him with so much detachment that she might not have known him at all. Also he didn't know why she was dressed the way she was, if this was for some new project she was working on, but she'd never looked so young. She reminded him so much of Sophie right then, and it got him back on track.

"Is she here?" he asked. The Angel stared at him.

"Is who where?" She must really have been made at him to shut him out this way.

"Is Sophie in there?" Julian indicated the theater. "Look, I really need to talk to her, I've been looking for her all day. I came earlier, but all the doors are locked and there's signs… It's her handwriting, but I figured if it was closed she'd be somewhere else, only I've looked everywhere and didn't find her, so I thought I'd come back and see just in case, now you're here…"

The Angel could see the young man was evidently upset about something, but she still couldn't grasp why he was telling her all of this. What she could grasp was that he could be useful to them, to Young Cosima. The others out there in the theater would never let either her or the child get anywhere near them, so if she was going to get Young Cosima out of the theater, she was going to need someone else to pass on whatever corporeality she lacked that kept her bound to the theater.

"You want to see… Sophie," she made herself sound as though she knew who this Sophie was, and who the young man was, too. He clearly seemed to know her, or think he did, so he'd have no reason not to come along, especially if he was looking for someone. When he nodded, she looked back to the theater door still hanging open. "Come with me," she said, guiding him to the door.

"Hey!" a voice called out, loud enough and near enough to make them stop and turn. The woman swept in at a stomp, sliding her way between the two. "You're not going anywhere with him, so back off," her tone was clear, firm, and the Angel knew better than to make a spectacle of herself out here in this strange world. Instantly she rushed off, back through the theater door, which slammed shut behind her.

"What are you doing, who are you?" Julian frowned, trying to cut past her.

"You can't go in there," the woman kept blocking him.

"What are you talking about?" he stared at her. He would never lay a hand on a woman, even if it was just to push her aside, but what was he supposed to do. "Do I know you?" he frowned, forced to take in her face and feeling like he'd seen her before.

"Not exactly…" the woman sounded uneasy.

"Look, my girlfriend's in there, she's pregnant, I've been trying to reach her all day, and now something weird is going on, please, just… move!" he tried to sidestep her again.

He may have had a problem with establishing contact with her, but she didn't. She'd let him pass her, but only so far as she needed to before they weren't out in the open and she could knock him upside the head. He crumpled to the ground, while she squeezed her eyes shut. When she didn't hear him stir, she cracked an eye open, stepped forward, nudged him a bit. He was out cold.

"Sorry, Dad," Gemma sighed. Crouching next to him, she'd hooked her arm around his before reaching to the strap on her arm. A moment later, the alley was empty.

X

When the Angel had stepped back into the theater, she'd found Cassie, Brian, Prince James and Lady Hanlon waiting for her.

"You did it," Cassie reacted, stunned, while the Angel locked the door again. "How…" The Angel had left them earlier, saying she meant to find Young Cosima. It wasn't until all the commotion that followed her encounter with Chloe that they had gone and sought her out again. Now here she was, solid, and returning from the outside they couldn't reach.

"Why would you come back?" Lady Hanlon shook her head.

X

_Inside the TARDIS_

Sophie had tried to pace herself, but as the hours had passed, she had ended up finishing her book, which had led to her eating her snacks for entertainment, if not for sheer hunger. There was nothing left for her to do, nothing she could provide for herself at least, and seeing as she'd seen no one since they'd left her here, except for the still surprising appearance of the Teacher, restlessness was kicking in. She'd tried napping; it could only do her and the baby good at this point, but she couldn't do it. She didn't know what was happening out there, with her mother, and her friends, and now with the Doctor… What if terrible things had happened to them and she was waiting for a relief that would not come?

She stared at the door. They'd told her not to leave the ship, and so far she had definitely been out of harm's way here… She couldn't open the door, she'd promised, but… maybe she could find a way to see what was happening?

She knew from her mother's stories that there was some way of seeing outside the ship, if she could find it… There was a screen, it couldn't be that hard. She went up to the screen, looked at the buttons and switches around it, and after a minute more to consider her options, she'd pressed one. Nothing happened. She frowned, tried another one, still nothing. She sighed, staring at the buttons with her hands cradling her neck. Her mother called it her resting equation face.

"Right, third time," she muttered to herself and pressed another button. The screen flickered to life, and she had herself a quiet cheer. "Okay, now what…" she breathed.

She didn't know how she'd managed it. She thought she was beginning to understand the way it worked, but even then, when the image changed and she recognized what she saw as a part of the theater, she stood back, afraid that she'd hit something and make it go away.

Even she could tell that, if it wasn't for the TARDIS being able to capture them to some degree, if she'd been looking through a regular camera, she would not have either seen or heard the four who were standing around the Angel, but her… The one who looked so like her mother looked as real as could be. How was that even possible?

"_Why would you come back?"_ the ghost of Lady Hanlon asked.

"_There was a young man outside, trying to get into this place,"_ the Angel explained. _"He seemed to know me somehow, called me Mrs. Perberry."_ Sophie straightened up. That sounded like… _"He was looking for someone called Sophie."_

"Julian…" she breathed.

It didn't matter how they'd left one another the last time she'd seen him. Knowing he was near, knowing he might have been in trouble, her instincts had kicked in so hard she had all but flown for the TARDIS doors. It was easy to bargain with herself that she'd only need to be careful, so long as she could get to him. She'd been walking through these halls for years, she knew her way around as good as anyone…

She was not exactly prone to speed in her condition, nor was she expecting to make herself all that discreet, which made her options all the more problematic when she turned a corner and came face to face with one of the ghosts. It was Pio Eco… Etta. She was as surprised to see her as Sophie was, but she only stood there and looked around.

"Where'd you come from?" Etta asked, then, "Doesn't matter, go back where you came from, don't get yourselves in trouble," he pointed to her belly.

"I have to go find my boyfriend, he's out there, I'm sorry," she went to move past the ghost, nearly tripping in her hurry. It was still in Etta's reflexes to expect herself as solid, so she reached out to stop her.

Their arms only touched a moment, grazed really, but it was enough. All at once, tripping wasn't the problem, but losing consciousness was, and Sophie could only just barely angle her way down before she was on the ground, and she was out.

Etta was beside herself, kneeling next to the girl, reaching out but then thinking better of it. "Can you hear me?" she begged, but Sophie would not hear or respond.

She stood and hurried off to find help from people who could touch her and look after her; it was the only way.

TO BE CONTINUED (TOMORROW)


	27. If Only

**"The Theater, The Theatre"**

**27. If Only**

_June 2012 – Lima, Ohio_

Gemma had been worried that somehow she would find it difficult to get back into the rhythm of her classes, even though it had only been a couple of days since she'd really gone. It was hard not to internalize her supposed weeks of absence. Time had kept moving at McKinley, and people had continued on living, changing, while she'd been away. It was like being halfway through a book and suddenly skipping fifty pages. Now she was expected to continue on reading as though she wasn't missing a lot of information.

But all in all it really hadn't been that bad. She had a new class to teach, something she'd done before, so in time she had started to adjust. If she hadn't, dealing with the inclusion of her grandmother into their situation might have been that much harder. Right about now, she would have been in big trouble.

"Miss Harrison?" a high voice called, and she dropped the chalk with which she'd been writing, turning to find Rachel stomping into her empty classroom. Gemma still looked around, making sure that they weren't going to be overheard. She only had to look into the girl's face to know where this was going. "I need to talk to you," Rachel went on, and before Gemma could move to shut the door, Rachel went and did it herself.

"I'm guessing you've been looking into what we talked about," Gemma spoke slowly, feeling her awkwardness level rising. This was what she'd been afraid of the entire time, to find herself before her young grandmother and balking. But this was worse than she thought. She wasn't just standing in front of her grandmother. Looking at the girl now, hearing the tone of her voice… She sounded so much like her mother that Gemma was not entirely sure anymore who of the two of them was the kid and who was in charge.

"I followed them, and then I hid in one of the booths at Breadstix," Rachel informed her, and Gemma's face lifted into a half smirk. She had to chase it away almost instantly, raising herself back into the position of being the girl's teacher.

"You did?" she asked. "And how did that go?" Rachel didn't speak at first, reflecting on what she'd seen and heard the previous afternoon.

"Well, they're definitely up to something," she eventually nodded. "And whatever it is, I think they want to get me and Finn into it."

"Any idea what that 'something' is?" Gemma went on to ask, and here she saw a look of sly victory come into the girl's face, and she was astounded at how entirely she resembled her mother in that moment.

"I don't, but I think you do… Your name isn't Ginny Harrison, is it?" she asked, and it took just about every ounce of self-control for Gemma not to twitch. "I didn't figure it out right away, but they were talking about someone that would decide if they came after me or went after Finn next, someone called Gemma?" Rachel looked at her like she was just waiting for her to give herself away. "I didn't know who they were talking about, but as they were leaving, I heard Sugar say how she was glad to have her back. That means she would have been away… like you were," she tipped her head. "I'm right, aren't I? It's you, you're this Gemma person."

She didn't know whether to be proud or terrified of her bright-eyed, intense teenage grandmother. At least she didn't know the rest, she couldn't, since no one else knew at McKinley, but what was she expected to do, lie? Rachel had already proven this would not fly.

"Well… I was hoping to ease you into all this," she tilted a smile to the girl. "Guess that's out."

"Tell me the truth, or I'm going to Figgins. You're not really a teacher, are you?"

"Oh, I am," she lied, though sometimes it didn't feel like a lie anymore. "But all of this was meant to end with you finding out what's going on, so we'll just have to take a different route, won't we?"

Rachel was still looking at her, waiting. So Gemma sighed and indicated for her to sit down. When Rachel finally went, Gemma followed and sat by her.

"So you're Gemma?" Rachel asked, and she nodded. "Gemma who?"

"Harrison's still good," she shrugged. Already having borrowed her sister's first name when she'd arrived here, it had been easy to borrow her second grandmother's maiden name, keeping things in the family. She couldn't tell Rachel the Lucas name, or she might understand who she was the minute her as yet unborn daughter took up with a boy called Julian Lucas. Now she'd just need to make sure the others didn't give her up.

"Okay, so tell me," Rachel crossed her arms before herself, and Gemma bit back a laugh, but finally she let out a breath and spoke.

She wasn't going to simply throw the whole thing out in her face, not like this, but she could give her the general idea of it, the big picture. Already that big picture would be a lot to take in. She had to tell her about how she travelled with someone called the Doctor, to which she'd gotten some recognition, with how Rachel had heard the others say that name back at Breadstix. She told her how they travelled around, from place to place, and sometimes it was just that, travelling, and it was wonderful, but then also at other times they would see places and they would come upon situations that needed dealing with, dangerous things, dangerous beings, but the Doctor was very smart, and she knew how to handle it, and so did Gemma, too, though not in the same way the Doctor did. Rachel was still following her, though she still didn't look entirely on board with her, which was normal. Knowing her friends had been pulled into this, and that she was meant to do the same was bound to leave anyone cautious.

When there was nowhere else to go in order to move forward, Gemma had added the layer that made this revelation that much harder to accept. She told Rachel how the Doctor was not of this Earth, that she had lived hundreds of years and could escape death through regeneration, which meant she had had several other faces before the one Gemma had first known her as, and hers was the only one who'd been female. She told Rachel how these travels had occurred in different times and on different planets, and that the thing they needed her and her friends for could affect not only them and the others of this world, but the people of so many other worlds as well.

She'd been so hopeful to get her grandmother on board, but that wasn't what happened, not on this day. Instead, Rachel had told her it had better be a joke or else she was crazy, and then she'd left.

TO BE CONTINUED (TOMORROW)


	28. Corporeality

**"The Theater, The Theatre"**

**28. Corporeality**

_New York City, in the year 2047_

For some time it was as though they had forgotten about the Angel entirely. They had seen Chloe disappear through the floor, and instantly all that mattered was that they would get to her and make sure she was alright. Rachel led the way, alongside the Doctor, knowing the layout of the theater and where Chloe could have ended up. She felt her heart beating so fast, thinking of what might have come to pass, thinking of whether Chloe would have fallen so far that she would have left the theater altogether, sinking into the earth, deeper, deeper…

They'd gone down to the lowest level, and when they hadn't found any trace of her, Rachel had feared she was right. She was trembling, on the verge of tears. But then she could see the Doctor, and she was not panicking, and she would cling to that knowledge with all the hope in her. If the Doctor wasn't afraid, maybe she didn't have to be either.

"Doctor?" Rachel asked her. The woman didn't reply. She was staring at the ceiling, and the way she patted at her sides, Rachel understood she was still looking for her sonic screwdriver, which had remained with Sophie on the TARDIS.

"You two," she pointed to George and Jamie. "Give me a leg up, will you?" The two young men had hesitated, but eventually they'd worked together to raise the Doctor until she could reach out and brush the ceiling with her fingers. She was muttering something to herself, and though Rachel couldn't make it out, it sounded almost optimistic. "Yes, we need to… You can put me down now," she looked down, which almost had her fall over, but the boys were able to get her down on her feet. The Doctor breathed out, straightened herself up, then pointed out the door. "One floor up, let's go!"

So the group had run, and when they'd opened the door to the room which lined up on Chloe's descent, the light flooded into the room and found her. She was lying face down, as her trajectory would have brought, but she was conscious, they could tell, from the way she whimpered, trying to catch her breath.

"Chloe!" George moved toward her, trying to touch her, but there was nothing to hold. She was as transparent as all the ghosts they'd seen before.

"G-George…" her voice still trembled from shock. "I… I'm flying… I'm flying…"

The Doctor hurried forward, kneeling next the girl and tipping her head to the ground. It had been an easy mistake to make, but Chloe was right, in essence, now that the Doctor looked closely. She lay flat, but she did not touch the ground. She had stopped, one inch away, give or take.

"Can you stand?" the Doctor asked, keeping a soothing and reassuring voice. "I'm sorry, I wish I could help you, but we can't."

"I know… I-I can do it." Slowly, shakily, she had pulled herself up, first on her knees, and then on to her feet. The Doctor had watched the whole time, her eyes still stuck to the inch of nothingness between the girl and the ground. Chloe's legs still trembled, as though she couldn't find solid footing.

"Good, now follow us, let's get back up there, shall we?" the Doctor instructed.

Everyone had been watching in silence, and they followed, each one as tense as the last. They followed with their eyes as Chloe made her way out of the room, into the hall and toward the stairs. The moment her foot had raised and set itself on the first step, the Doctor felt a rush of new understanding. Chloe's shoe, though as 'unreal' as she was, still managed to do what she hadn't done up until then: it lay flat against the step. Chloe realized it, too, and she gasped with something like relief before raising her other foot to join the first.

"Just for a moment, step back down, please?" the Doctor asked. Chloe did, and once again her feet would not touch the ground. "Excellent, now up, up," she pointed to the stairs, and the small troupe ascended back to the ground floor. As they'd gone, the Doctor had held back Rachel, so that they might be the last two, separated by a short distance. "How well do you know these people?" she whispered.

"I… I've known some of them for years," Rachel whispered back.

"Are you certain?"

"Yes, why are you…"

"I need you to keep this between us, do you understand?" the Doctor asked, and Rachel nodded. "I knew it would only be a matter of time until I knew for certain, but now here it is," she pointed back to the floor they'd just left.

"Because she was floating?"

"She wasn't floating, she… well, I suppose in a sense she was, but it's more than that. She couldn't go any further, no more than the ghosts can leave the theater. When the Angel took what she took from her, she submitted her to those rules. The ghosts can go no further than the four walls of this theater, and that floor down below. That tells me their presence is being generated, and when something is generated, then somewhere, there is a generator… two… one that's a machine, another…"

"One of my people," Rachel filled in, and the Doctor nodded. "Where would they even get anything like that? Here, now…"

"Oh, you'd be surprised. Listen, for now, tell no one."

"I won't, I swear," Rachel nodded as they reached the main floor.

They'd only just walked out of the stairwell that the tall woman came bursting through the opposite wall. Her appearing out of nowhere startled the others, but she paid them no mind.

"You need to help that little girl," Etta pointed back the way she'd come from in alarm.

"Cosima?" Tom asked.

"No, not that little… The pregnant one, I ran into her, but she tripped, and I tried to stop her from falling, then… She's out, you need to help her, I can't…"

Rachel was the first to run, but the Doctor was fast on her heels.

TO BE CONTINUED (TODAY)


	29. More Than We Are

**"The Theater, The Theatre"**

**29. More Than We Are**

_New York City, in the year 2047_

Before she'd made her flight into the auditorium, the Angel had sent Young Cosima to hide somewhere the corporeal people wouldn't find her, but now that she'd been reunited with Cassie, Brian, Prince James and Lady Hanlon, she'd gone to find her again. Immediately the girl had been surprised by one thing.

"How did you do that?" she asked, as the Angel's hand still rested on the door knob. Before she'd gotten around to answering, they'd heard a sound and turned to see Mr. Bennett had run past and stopped when he'd spotted them.

"Here, I found them!" he called back, then looked at the group again and backed away. A few seconds later, Prisoner 0712 joined him, and then Etta, too.

"What are you doing here?" Cassie asked. "Did you change your mind?"

"Something bad happened," Mr. Bennett breathed.

"We thought you should know," Prisoner 0712 added.

"What happened?" Prince James asked.

"There was a girl, I think her mother is the one who looks like you," Etta indicated the Angel. "I didn't even remember her being there anymore until I ran into her. I tried telling her to hide, but she said her boyfriend was outside. When she tried to run by me, she tripped, and I tried to stop her, but we touched, and then she fainted…"

"Outside… yes…" the Angel understood. "She must be this Sophie the young man was looking for."

"Sophie?" Young Cosima spoke, and the others looked at her as though they'd almost forgotten she was there to begin with.

"What about her?" Cassie asked. The child was blinking, thinking hard.

"I remember… there was a girl… who used to come h-here… to see our show, our…" She looked around, as though she was truly seeing for the first time. "They were right. We're not real," she shook her head.

"What are you saying?" Lady Hanlon looked distressed.

"I remember her, I remember Sophie. She was my friend. She was smaller than me, but we played together, I remember… I had another name… And there was another girl, older… She was me, too…" She had to sit a moment, her head was aching, but then she stood almost just as soon. "I need to go see her," she declared.

"You're the last person they'll want to see right now, besides her," Cassie pointed out before nodding toward Etta. Young Cosima frowned at Cassie before moving up to the Angel.

"Please, you have to remember her, too, don't you?" she asked, reaching out and taking up the woman's pale hands. "Remember Sophie," she begged.

Staring at her, the Angel had never looked so human. The wings so light on her back felt for a moment as though they had begun to weigh down her shoulders.

It was something never discussed in the musical itself, or in any of the associated material, but it was a fact widely disputed that the Angel, life, had been Cosima's mother, and that all she ever did was done with the unwavering goal of protecting her orphaned child. It was a theory which Rachel Berry had internalized in her playing of the Angel, and it was something which the ghost now hosted in her shape had retained all along. Now when bid to recall the girl called Sophie, she not only saw the pregnant girl she'd glimpsed earlier. She also saw a small child who used to play with her wings. She saw the reason for which Rachel Berry had been so taken by the notion that the Angel and Cosima were mother and daughter. She knew she wasn't Rachel Berry, not in that sense, but she still had her face, and a sampling of her memories pertaining to her time as the Angel. She hadn't felt it before, and she wondered if the corporeality she and Cosima had attained had anything to do with this sudden access of memory. It didn't matter so much though, not as much as the fact that Sophie, Rachel's Sophie, was hurt, in peril…

She'd said nothing, but then when Young Cosima had reached up her small hands and brushed her face, the Angel discovered her tears, and she nodded to the girl, touching her face. That was all Young Cosima needed.

"I want to help her," she said. "I think I know how."

She took off at a run, with Etta to show her the way. When the Angel stood once again, she stared at all the others before looking down to her hands. That girl, the one she'd gone after… She didn't know who she was, and if she did she might have felt terrible for those reasons. But as it was, the remorse that she felt was born out of nothing more than the admission of her own wrongdoing. She'd been trying to help Young Cosima, that was all she had wanted, but now… It couldn't be like this.

She walked in the direction the others had gone, and after a moment the rest of the group followed her. No one said a word, and whether or not any one of them meant to do anything when they'd come upon the others, they had best no that she wouldn't let them, even if it meant she'd lose her corporeality. The Doctor had it right before. They hadn't been doing this the way they should have. Now maybe they had a chance to do something better, something right. They had forgotten themselves, but the Angel remembered, and maybe the others could, too.

TO BE CONTINUED (TOMORROW)


	30. Trust In One

_A/N: Sooo... One night in the hospital last week, and here I am with a major backlog... I was hoping to catch it all up today, and I do have today's chapters, the last two of this story, written down, but I haven't typed them yet and it's 1am and I do not have it in me... But they will go up tomorrow! (In the meantime here's 9 other chapters ;))_

**"The Theater, The Theatre"**

**30. Trust In One**

_June 2012 – Lima, Ohio_

The weeks that followed Gemma's telling Rachel –some of – the truth had been as uneventful as could be. At least that was the case so far as their ongoing mission was concerned. On every other front, it was madness. Graduation was fast approaching, which meant finals, both in class and in show choir. Gemma had wanted to be there to see it, but in the end she had decided not to go; she didn't want to jinx them.

They had all noticed the strange and sudden dejectedness about her, but no one had seemed to want to dare asking her about it. Whatever was going on in her head, she didn't look interested in sharing it at all. Or at least none of them had gathered their courage and done it. That was until the day Artie had decided it had been long enough. He kept telling the others how he and Gemma had really bonded back when he'd first known her, well now it was time for him to prove it.

"Miss Harrison?" he called as he approached her in the hall. She stopped and turned to look at him, and he rolled forward. "I really need to talk to you, I'm worried about my final exam," he revealed, though he could see in Gemma's eyes she knew as well as he did this was only a ruse; she couldn't deny him in front of all these witnesses, could she? She was a teacher after all.

"Sure, why don't we step into my classroom," she dutifully replied. They moved to the room, and she closed the door behind them. He followed her progress, as she left the door and came to sit at her desk. "So," her hands joined on the desk. "What would you like to review?" He blinked. Did she actually think he wanted her help for school work?

"What happened? Why did we stop?" he asked. She reached for her copy of the textbook, leafing through it. He reached over and stopped her hand. She looked at his hand on hers, and then to his face, and he pulled away, not so much worried about being proper, as he was looking to her as a friend at the moment and not a teacher, but respecting that she might not have wanted him to do that. "We're worried, that's all. First you were gone for all those weeks, and then you came back and we figured everything was back on track, but then it stopped…"

He had already been worried for her, but seeing her now as she sat there, he had never seen her look so small, so human and… normal… She'd been the Doctor's companion, she'd been the one entrusted with pulling them all in order, sometimes he thought maybe they were forgetting she was just a person, like any of them. Something had really gotten to her, and no one knew about it.

"Gemma?" he asked, and she looked at him. Was she going to cry? She looked on the verge of it now. "I know I'm just a kid to you, and you probably have better people to confide in, but I want you to know… You've been my friend since I was eight years old, even if it was only for a couple of days, I never forgot, and it never changed… You can tell me anything, and it'll be safe with me," he gestured as though he meant to cover his ears and hold whatever words she told him inside his head.

She stared at him for a moment, and he really hadn't expected for his words to have so much effect, but the way she stared at him, for a moment, he thought he saw her smile; they hadn't seen a genuine one of those in weeks.

"You knew this day would come, didn't you? That was why you said…" her voice had gone soft, and he wasn't sure he followed.

"What did I say?"

"Actually you haven't said it yet," her smile grew just a little. "You know how you like to point out you've known me since you were a kid?" He nodded, unsure. "Well… so have I."

"You've… known yourself since you were a kid?" he tried to understand.

"No," she reached into her bag, pulling out a tablet, swiping through a few pictures before she found the one she was looking for, "I've known you since I was a kid." When she slid the tablet across the desk, he leaned in and picked it up.

"Wha… How? Is that…"

The picture showed a man in a wheelchair, though he looked to be somewhere in his late fifties. Sitting on his lap was a small girl with two braids of brown hair, and a smile he was familiar with. He looked back up to Gemma, back at the picture…

"You and I, we're not…"

"Well, we share no blood, no… But that doesn't stop me calling you Uncle Arthur." He was still at a loss for words.

"Who are you?"

"Look at me, Artie. Really… look… I have to say, I'm surprised none of you have picked up on it before. But I guess no one makes a point of looking teachers in the face for very long.

She was right, he hadn't looked. Because now that he did, he didn't know how he hadn't noticed it before.

"Rachel?" his voice nearly squeaked.

"I do have a lot of my parents in me, but my mother keeps telling me I have a lot of my grandmother in me, especially in my voice."

"Rachel… Rachel Berry… is your grandmother," he had to say it, because it was too wild, too impossible, and unless he said it, he might think he was imagining it.

"Not yet, but someday, if all goes as it's meant to," Gemma nodded. "She can't know."

"No, of course not, that would be bad," he agreed. "But… wait… why are you telling me?"

"Because you told me to," she smiled.

"I did?" he asked, then seeing the look she gave him, "I will," he corrected, and she nodded.

"You must have used every chance you got, whenever you saw me growing up, you made sure to tell me I could tell you anything, and it would be safe," she repeated his gesture.

"Oh…" he understood, though it still blew his mind. "Then that means… When I met you, ten years ago…" She chuckled.

"That was a hard one, and so strange. But we got through it, didn't we?"

"Yeah, we…" This was absolutely amazing. But it didn't solve everything. "Why _did_ you stop trying? With Rachel, and…" Gemma sighed, getting up.

"I tried to tell her, and it… it did not end well."

"You panicked," he translated.

"Should have seen the way she looked at me…" her voice grew small again. Now Artie knew. He knew why his future self would pass on his message the way he did, because he knew this would be the day she saw it, and then he could turn it around, all of it.

"I'll take care of it, we all will," he vowed. When she looked back at him, he bowed his head. "I won't tell them what you told me. We'll get her."

TO BE CONTINUED (TOMORROW)


	31. All That We Were

**"The Theater, The Theatre"**

**31. All That We Were**

_New York City, in the year 2047_

For so long after losing Benji, Rachel had lived in fear that anything might happen and take Sophie away from her. She had difficulty letting her do anything that might be remotely dangerous to her. Sophie had complained many times, though Rachel knew that deep down she understood. With the years, Rachel had learned to calm down, to not live so much in fear. But when they came upon Sophie lying there on the ground, it all came back to her. The fear, the caution, the nightmares…

She'd gotten down on her knees, reaching out a careful hand to touch her face. When she'd seen signs that she was breathing, Rachel had found her own breath returned.

"Sophie?" she spoke, wanting so much to see her daughter's eyes open.

"Stay with her, I'll be back in a minute," the Doctor hurried off, not so far now, until she came face to face with her ship. Dashing through the TARDIS doors, she'd found her jacket, thrown it on, then dug into her pocket and gripped her screwdriver. "Brilliant," she muttered before running again.

She found the rest of the theater's people had crowded around Rachel and Sophie, but when he saw her coming, Jamie made them split to let her through. Crouching and then kneeling before the unconscious girl, the Doctor felt at her pulse and her forehead before aiming the retrieved screwdriver over her and examining what it told her. The brush off with Etta had taken part of her corporeality from her, leaving her in shock.

"Doctor?" Rachel's voice reached her, and she looked up at the concerned mother. "How bad is it?" She wanted the truth.

"So far there doesn't seem to be any permanent damage," she promised.

"But…" Rachel guessed.

"You know those little twinkling lights on strings, the kind you lay on Christmas trees?"

"What does that have to do with it?" Chloe asked. She was standing near enough that she could be close to her almost sister, but separated enough that no one would accidentally touch her.

"Well, what happens when there's even one missing?" the Doctor asked, and that silenced them. "She's lost one little light, from her brush with Etta. Until she's complete again, she won't be out of danger," she went on explaining, looking at the girl's face.

"What about the baby?" Jamie asked.

The Doctor leaned in, pressing her ear to Sophie's belly while also pointing the sonic again.

"What are you…" Rachel asked, but the Doctor shushed.

"Let me listen." They were all very quiet now and the Doctor concentrated. They couldn't know how invested she was, to know that this little girl would be born and that she'd be healthy. They could know even less how her heart sank when she realized… "It's not Sophie," she spoke, sitting up and looking Rachel in the eye.

"What's not…"

"Sophie's whole, it's the baby… it's her little light that's gone."

"B…Baby?" a dazed voice asked and they looked down to find that Sophie had started to wake.

"Sophie…" Rachel couldn't help but be relieved, and she held on to her.

"What happened, why am I…" She stopped abruptly, her hand moving to the swell beneath which her child grew. She gasped, and Rachel felt her tense. "The baby…"

"You'll both be alright, okay?" Rachel tried to reassure her.

"No… but… I think she's coming…" Sophie breathed.

"Sophie? Listen to me," the Doctor took her hand. "You have to stay calm, and if you can at all… you need to keep her in."

"What? Why?" Sophie asked, still too confused. The Doctor looked back to Rachel.

"They can't leave the theater, it won't let her" the Doctor explained, indicating Sophie. "Right now, Sophie might be the only one keeping her alive. She won't be strong enough on her own." Rachel looked down to her daughter, saw the sudden terror in her eyes.

"Mom… No…" she shook her head. "She can't… she can't… ah!" She cried, tensing again. "I don't think I can do this…"

"Yes, yes you can," Rachel took her other hand. "I'm right here, and we'll get through this, won't we, Doctor?" If Rachel Berry had ever believed in the Time Lady, now she needed her more than ever.

"Yes, we will," she replied, with every ounce of honesty in her. She more than perhaps anyone out there knew not to assume the best just because she would know the grown up version of this baby in distress.

Then, all at once, there they were, not through a wall but from around the corner. Young Cosima and Etta arrived first, but the Angel wasn't far behind.

"You did this to her," Maggie accused, pointing to Etta. "You should leave, all of you."

"Sophie?" Young Cosima didn't listen, cutting past until she was kneeling next to her, too. "I remember you. I remember when we hid in the prop room, I remember… what was my name?" Sophie blinked, unsure, but then…

"Annabeth," she replied, and Young Cosima smiled, placing her hand over Sophie's belly. She took a breath, and Young Cosima nodded.

When she let go, Sophie looked all at once more lucid, while the small ghost appeared to have grown paler, even a bit transparent. She stood back on her feet, and then she was fading again, more and more, until there was nothing left of her.

"No!" Tom blurted out, and they looked at him. "Where did she go?"

"Tom?" Rachel frowned, baffled.

"She can't have gone, I didn't… I didn't make her."

TO BE CONTINUED (TODAY)


	32. In Praise

**"The Theater, The Theatre"**

**32. In Praise**

_New York City, in the year 2047_

The Doctor slowly stood. She looked back down to Sophie for a moment, and all signs pointed to her crisis having ended. But now there was something else, and in the confusion of it all, no one had moved or said a word. Tom Barren was only just realizing what he'd said but he also seemed entirely aware he had no chance even if he tried to run. Even if he did, all the fight had gone out of him when Young Cosima had disappeared. It wasn't until the other ghosts arrived, boxing him in, that the Doctor came to stand in front of the man and asked for some explanations.

"I… it wasn't supposed to be like this, I swear…"

"How did you acquire this technology?" the Doctor asked.

"It wasn't easy, but you must know… it was worth the trouble to me, it was," he nodded. "In my time, these years since I've arrived, they are… the very best, I believe that. So when I was given the chance to experience them first hand… How could I pass it up?"

"You're from the future?" The Doctor was stunned.

"That's impossible, you've worked for us for years," Rachel frowned. She knew what the Doctor had told her, about it possibly being one of them, but Tom…

"It was easy enough, finding someone to bring me here, once I knew where to look," he shrugged. "All I had to do was to abandon the life I'd been leading in my own time, and believe me it was no hard bargain, not when instead I got to be here. These years… they have been the very best, I promise you."

"You don't understand what you've given up, do you?" the Doctor shook her head. "You allowed them to remove you from you own time. You'd have done just as well with the Weeping Angels. Oh, Tom, I know exactly who you traded with. For a long time, I had no idea, but that's time for you… and you've been played. So what did they give you, show me."

Tom was staring at her, stricken, but he reached under his jacket and pulled out a pulsing disc. He wouldn't hand it over, but he didn't have to. The Doctor only had to look at it in order to recognize the make of it.

This was the generator, the thing which had settled a field over the theater and tapped into its energy, from year upon years of performances on its stages and created the composites of the nine ghosts, nine to match the lives within the field. This was what created them and what kept them bound within its walls. So long as it was active, the ghosts would exist, inside the field, but if it was stopped…

"You've been here for years, why wait this long to use it?"

"I wanted to," he turned it about in his hands. "I wanted to use it, but… I was here already and I got to see… so many of you already in the flesh, performing out there. In my booth, I was right where I wanted to be," he smiled serenely. "And… the longer I waited, I thought… what if it didn't do what it was meant to? I wasn't even sure anymore what it would do."

"But you finally did do it, so what changed?" Chloe asked. Tom hesitated.

"Well, the thing is… if I didn't use it now, I might never get the chance…" he explained, suddenly quiet.

"You're dying," the Doctor understood.

"Irony is, had I stayed in my own time, they could have cured me. But I don't want to be. I've lived a good long life. Not all of it was good, but once it was, it never stopped," he found his smile again, before taking in a breath and letting it out. "I know it can't last, that you have to make it end, so… I'll do it," he vowed.

"Are you sure?" the Doctor asked, her voice kind and understanding.

"It's time I stop living in the past. I mean, I already do," he pointed out wistfully. But the one I've got is good enough, that is… if I can still carry on working here," he looked to Rachel, to Sophie and Chloe. "I never meant for anyone to get hurt, you have to know."

Rachel looked to the two girls, one who had been her daughter for twenty-four years already and the other who had come into her heart in the last two years. She looked at Tom.

"They'll be alright once it's done?" she asked.

"Yes," Tom promised, and the Doctor backed this assurance up with a nod.

"When this is done, I… we'll work it out," she replied, and it might not have been a complete answer, but Tom looked at least sufficiently confident.

"Right…" he breathed, looking down to the disc again. There was still some hesitation in him, but the Doctor could see something had changed in him now, like maybe he wasn't concerned for himself anymore but for the ghosts. The Doctor couldn't blame him. They had all heard Young Cosima, they knew some of them were changing, remembering things deeper than this appearance at the moment.

But then they weren't the only ones thinking about it, about what would happen when the disc was deactivated. The ghosts had been right behind him, and suddenly the Doctor saw Tom was fumbling with the object like he couldn't quite grasp it.

Then it slipped right through his fingers, and a hand appeared from out of his midsection and caught it. The object, which could not lose its corporeality like Tom could, was pulled back through him, now grasped in Cassie's very solid hand.

"We won't let you do that to us," she stepped back. "You won't make us fade away."

Then she turned and ran away with the disc, while Chloe moved to help Tom, the only one of the theater people who could help him.

"Cassie, wait!" Brian went after her, as did Prince James and Lady Hanlon. Etta went, too, if perhaps to stop her. But the others were at a standstill. With the truth out in the open, it was unclear what they wanted next.

TO BE CONTINUED (TOMORROW)


	33. Team Mentality

**"The Theater, The Theatre"**

**33. Team Mentality**

_June 2012 – Lima, Ohio_

He still had trouble looking at Rachel now – not staring. How could he not have seen it before? Now that he knew her connection to Gemma, it was just… mind blowing. Sure, he'd known all along that Gemma was from the future, but this… This put it all so very much in perspective that he was at a loss for words. That may have been a good thing, if his intention was to keep it secret from her.

But he was going to have to pull himself together because there was something he had to do. He'd promised Gemma they'd get Rachel on board, and that was what they'd do.

He sent out a mass text to all those others in the Glee Club who knew about the Doctor, and he told them to stay back in the choir room that afternoon after last period.

When that last class ended, he knew he could find Rachel in the next room over, so he did.

"I need to talk to you about something," he told her, and without leaving her room to argue, he'd led her back toward the choir room. He could hear her asking questions, but he didn't answer. What mattered was that she followed, which she did. Artie wasn't sure what he'd find in there, if all of them or any of them would show up, but either way he vowed Rachel would be convinced by the time she left again.

They were all waiting, and Artie breathed a quiet sigh of relief.

"What's going on?" Rachel asked, suspicion rising in her voice.

"We need to talk," Artie told her. "About Gemma." He hadn't informed the others on this, but they had to have guessed amongst themselves, going by their faces. He imagined that after Rachel was gone they'd have a number of questions for him as to what had changed all of a sudden, but to their credit, for now, they kept their mouths shut.

Rachel on the other hand, had adopted a frown when he'd revealed why he'd brought her here.

"I thought we'd gotten past the pranks, why won't you let it go?" she asked him and the others.

"Because it's not a prank," Quinn replied.

"Right, you're going to tell me you believe her about this… this time travelling alien?"

"I've met him," Quinn nodded.

"Me too," Sugar jumped in.

"Us too," Brittany pointed to Santana. All those of them who had met him – or her – added a nod.

"I know how crazy it sounds, because I didn't want to believe it for a while," Sam told her. "Some of us, we haven't seen him."

"Then why are you…"

"We trust our friends," Kurt shrugged. "And Gemma, we trust her too."

"She got my future self to write me a message," Blaine added. "It was real."

"She came to me in the past, borrowed something and returned it good as new just weeks ago," followed Tina.

Rachel didn't speak for a while, which they took as a good sign, the possibilities of disproving were shrinking away.

"Suppose I believed you, which I'm not saying I do… What's this all about? Why me, why us?" They were quiet, and she rose up again. "You don't know, do you?"

"She can't tell us yet," Sugar admitted.

"Not all, but some," Mercedes added before Rachel could jump on this.

"Something's coming, and she's going to need us, her and the Doctor, too," Puck followed.

"It could be dangerous…" Rachel shook her head.

"It probably will," Quinn agreed without balking.

"But you want to do it anyway?"

"When I met the Doctor, I helped him free a group of aliens who'd been captured and forced to perform in a circus," Quinn told her.

"We went to a town where aliens were hiding, for protection. We stopped them from being revealed and having the whole place implode on itself," Artie jumped in.

"The Doctor helped my family not to be erased," Puck followed, and one by one, those of them who had a story to tell went ahead and told it. Rachel listened to them all, though it wasn't entirely clear whether or not it was because she meant to, or because none of them gave her a chance to get a word in edgewise, piling one story on after another, with conviction and honesty.

When they had no more to tell, the choir room became quiet once more, and all eyes were turned to Rachel, in wait.

"It all sounds, I must admit, like it could be very honorable, in theory, but… How do I know…"

"The Doctor is coming," Artie told her. "And he's coming soon. If you need more time to think about it, I get that. But can you promise me that when the day comes when the Doctor lands here and needs us, you will come and see for yourself that everything we've told you is true?"

It was the only way they'd get her over that last hurdle; he could see it in her eyes. But if they could get her there, it might just be enough.

"I…" she started, and then she let out a sigh. "Fine, alright. If you can prove it."

"Thank you," he replied, bowing his head to her.

"What about Finn? He doesn't know…"

"He doesn't and he won't, not until Gemma says it's time, but that shouldn't be long. The way we can tell, he's the last one, so the Doctor should be here soon," Artie explained.

"But we're all leaving soon," Rachel pointed out, and in saying this, she had properly earned her place among them, because now they knew…

"He's coming at graduation."

TO BE CONTINUED (TOMORROW)


	34. One Face, Two Minds

**"The Theater, The Theatre"**

**34. One Face, Two Minds**

_New York City, in the year 2047_

They couldn't leave the theater, not any of them except the two of them now, but if Cassie went outside, with Tom's disc…

"What do we do now?" Rachel asked the Doctor.

"She's real now, we can stop her," Mackenzie nodded.

"No," the Doctor turned to her. "None of you must touch her, not now, not…"

"Doctor?" Sophie called up, cutting her off. The Doctor turned, and Sophie looked nervous all over again. "This might be a bad time, what with the ghosts and all, but I think it's happening for real now, the baby… My water just broke," she announced. At once, Rachel had resumed her position at her daughter's side.

"You'll be alright, both of you," she vowed. "I'll stay with you.

"Julian, I need… I need him here, he can't miss the baby being born," she shook her head, the old tears regaining. "Doctor, please, whatever you have to do…"

The Doctor had every intention of doing something about Cassie and the disc, naturally, but suddenly she found it hard to leave Sophie's side, as though out of responsibility to the child who would be born and one day grow to be her companion.

"Yes, right," she straightened up. "First things first," she turned to the Angel, who had not left their side. "I need your help. I can try and talk her down, but for the benefit of time, it might be best if you had a go at it. You two were kin in ghostship before, now you are again in corporeality. Convince her to relinquish the disc."

"How would I do that?" the Angel asked.

"It seems to me that your corporeality comes with something of a side effect, namely memories originating out of your forms, the faces you've taken on. You may just be able to make her tap into hers, the way Young Cosima did, the way you must have as well."

The Angel looked to Sophie. The moment she'd told them the baby was coming, the Angel had felt something in her, something she guessed Rachel Berry had felt too, and for that she'd leaned in nearer to her daughter protectively and reassuringly. But the Angel couldn't do that, and she'd realized it then.

Despite these memories she was accessing, despite what they were telling her, she was not Rachel Berry, and Sophie was not her daughter. She'd had a name of her own once, and a child, but they were neither one of them belonging to the two women huddled on the ground. She didn't even know for certain that they were truly hers and not only part of… the story…

She wasn't real at all, nor had she ever been. She existed because people like Rachel Berry had gone and portrayed her, just as the wall of images had shown it. Her world was cardboard, her wings had wires…

But not these wings. For the time being, they were as real as she was. And if her time was meant to come to an end, then she would use that time well.

"I am not… evil," she slowly declared.

"Never thought you were," Rachel replied, shaking her head in an almost sisterly way.

"Doctor," the Angel turned to her now. "I would prefer you came along. You seem to have a better idea of what's happening than I do." The Doctor stood, turning hesitantly to look at Sophie and Rachel. The baby would come, no stopping it now, and it still felt impossible to leave knowing that. But Rachel saw her face and interpreted the look as something more like 'will you be okay without me?' and once she'd nodded, it felt hard not to go ahead and leave with the Angel, so she did.

"Wait!" Sophie called, breathing deep. The Doctor turned immediately, and the Angel stopped, too. "Julian was here, wasn't he?" Sophie asked the Angel. "I heard you talking about him, that's why I came out of the Doctor's ship."

"The young man, yes," the Angel confirmed, bowing her head when she remembered what she'd planned to do for him. "A woman came, made me walk away from him."

"Yes, I imagine she would," the Doctor told herself. She didn't have to guess who that woman would be. She'd made certain not to come into the theater proper, but the outside was fair game, wasn't it…

"He could… he could still be out there," Sophie looked up to her mother. "H-He should be here, I want him to be… the baby…" She started to cry, and Rachel took up her hand, stroked her arm reassuringly.

"He will be. It'll be over soon, all this here, and then we'll get him, and you'll have that son or daughter of yours," she told her, stealing a look to the Doctor that begged the Time Lady not to make a liar out of her.

"You listen to your mother now, she's got the right of it, you'll see," the Doctor told Sophie.

After the Doctor and the Angel had gone, there wasn't much else for the others to do but keep Sophie calm while they waited to see what would happen next.

One day, Sophie would know more about all that which had been happening around her on the day her daughter was born. One day, she would look to her eldest daughter and she would see it, see the person she was growing up to become. She would know the true identity of the woman who had appeared to both her and Julian. The Teacher. Their daughter, Gemma…

Of course she wouldn't be able to tell her that. She would still be a child, unaware of her life's future course. And she'd have to stay that way, until the moment came when she could piece it together herself. The only one they could confide in until then was Rachel, who would have known it, too.

The oddest thing from that moment became to carry on the stories of the Doctor and the Teacher to Gemma and her sister. They weren't just stories anymore, they were Gemma's legacy. What could she do? Hide them from her? She already carried them in her spirit, same as Sophie had done all her life. They couldn't pry the stories from Gemma any more than they could keep her from living them.

TO BE CONTINUED (TODAY)


	35. Fallen No More

**"The Theater, The Theatre"**

**35. Fallen No More**

_New York City, in the year 2047_

Of all the things they would have expected to find, it would not have been the golden couple in a face off. But as the Doctor & the Angel came upon Cassie and those who'd followed her, all had stepped aside save for Brian, who had the way barred from the door out of the theater.

"You can't just go, Cassie, please," Brian was telling her.

"I can just. I can, if I want to survive," Cassie was staring at him like she was trying to plot out an escape.

"Well, I want to survive, too. It's you and me always, remember?" He held up his palm, which was crossed with a jagged scar.

"But it won't!" Cassie threw back. "You… you won't, I… I can see it now, I don't know why, but I know… you're going to die, Brian… no forever."

"What are you talking about?" Brian frowned.

"It's true," the Angel spoke, and the ghosts turned. "I have memories, too. You became real, and this is the consequence."

"Cassie, I'm right here, I'm not going to die," Brian insisted and, with a sigh, he stepped away from the door. He wanted to prove himself to her.

"Go on," the Doctor nodded to the Angel. Maybe it was that she had her grandmother's face, or that she was about to be born, but looking at the Angel now, it was hard not to back her up as she might her – future – companion. "You know what to do." The Angel had stepped forward, capturing their attention.

"Look at her," she told Cassie, pointing at Lady Hanlon. "Really look at her. She doesn't simply look like you, she is you. The both of you are characters, same as we all are," she indicated herself and the other ghosts. "And I think that you know this now. When you became real, it started, and now you know more than ever. You and I are friends, our portrayers are, I should say. They would trust one another so I ask you to trust me now."

"I fought too hard, for too long, I won't fade away…"

"You are not her!" the Angel rose her voice, startling more than one. "You are not either of them. This is not life. We were brought here by that device you hold," she pointed to the disc.

"It changes nothing," Cassie shook her head, determined but just barely shaken. "I'm leaving."

"And what does that make you? One more for the dark," the Angel intoned, and the Doctor looked at her. Her whole stance had changed and it sounded to the Doctor almost like… recitation. It had to be from the show, from Rise of the Fallen.

"What?" Cassie asked, with a nervousness that told the Doctor maybe she recalled the words from somewhere in her she wished she could deny.

"If you give in now, you will always be this one, but if you could only hold on… There is a place for you in the light." Cassie wasn't moving, although the Doctor could see her stealing glances toward Lady Hanlon, the woman who shared her face. She looked to Brian, her eyes watering.

"Forever?" she asked, and he showed his hand again. She looked to her own palm, which required for her to move the disc from one palm to the other. "I want our forever. If I give this back, we'll have it, right?"

"We will," Brian vowed. Cassie turned back to the Doctor. She tossed the disc at her feet, still some part of her coming off as defeated. The Doctor picked it up, looked back to the Angel; she had done well.

"Before we go, Doctor," the Angel said, "I have a small request, if you may."

Before they could do anything else, they had taken care to return what had been taken. Chloe and Tom were made whole again, while Cassie and the Angel were returned to their non-corporeal state. Having learned from Young Cosima, they knew this release would cause them to fade away. They hung in as best they could, especially so they might experience what the Doctor had agreed to let them do.

While the Time Lady held the disc, and the ghosts followed behind, they went through the door, out into night time in New York City. The Doctor would carry this memory with her, she knew. She would remember the ghosts, all in a row, staring up in awe at the night, the buildings, the people… they had never seen anything like this, and they wouldn't again after this night, but that wasn't the important part. The important part was that they'd seen it.

When they had finally been ready to return inside, everyone was silent, but they went nonetheless. They filed into the auditorium and they came to stand together, side by side, across the stage. This was where they truly made their lives, and this would be where they would stand, before they were allowed to fade.

"Are you ready?" the Doctor asked them, standing back.

"Is anyone ever ready?" Etta asked. Like all the rest, she was determined but inwardly terrified.

"I wasn't… not once," the Doctor admitted.

"But we must," Prince James shakily nodded – the sentiment followed.

"Take comfort, all… you will never be forgotten, thus you can never die."

It left them with a swell of pride, and it was on that thought that the Doctor released them, adjusting the disc to cancel the field. Soon, just as Young Cosima had done, the ghosts had faded away, until there were none.

The Doctor looked at the disc, debating for a moment whether or not to destroy it. In the end, she had slipped it down into her pocket. Who knew when it might come in handy?

A cry out in the distance reminded her of the other situation still at hand. Sophie's labor was intensifying, by the sound of it. The Doctor needed to get back to her, for her, for her mother, and for Gemma. There were so many things she wanted to say, some she could, some she must, and others she must not, under any circumstances, no matter how much it would kill her not to.

TO BE CONTINUED (TOMORROW)


	36. One Night Only

**"The Theater, The Theatre"**

**36. One Night Only**

_June 2012 – Lima, Ohio_

As far as anyone would know, Ginny Harrison was nervous due to the upcoming McKinley High graduation. This was true, to a point. But, in truth, it was Gemma Lucas who was nervous, for so much more. The days had gone by so fast, much too fast. Now here she was, and graduation was in the morning.

She'd bought two dresses, because she couldn't make up her mind. Knowing what she knew, she had debated what would be best, but when it came down to it, she wanted to dress for graduation, not for what might come next.

She had finally settled on the first dress, the blue dress, when there was a knock at her door and she went to let Walter in. She had given him the key a while back, but he still wouldn't use it unless it was absolutely necessary – like when she'd gone missing.

"Wow," was his greeting, and she smirked.

"You like it?" she looked down at herself, smoothing out the dress.

"I'm a bit on the biased side, I guess, but yes, I like it very much," he promised. "I have my suit all set and ready to go, too." She turned to him after having shut the door again. "What?" he asked.

"I… well…" she started, moving to sit on the edge of the bed, and he came to join her. "Are you sure you want to come? It's a high school graduation, it's… it's boring. I'm only going because I work there… and I promised the kids."

"Yes, and I promised them, too." She'd almost asked why he would promise them, and again she found she had forgotten all about her time "away". How hard could it be to remember, even if she hadn't lived through it? But she knew now it made sense that they'd want him there, for how they'd bonded in her absence. This only complicated things for her.

"But if it wasn't for them…" she started, but she knew she was headed the wrong way.

"You don't want me to come, do you?" She looked him in the eye, and try as she might, she couldn't keep lying.

"It's not… It's not that, but…" Gemma sighed. "What we're headed into, what I know of it, it'll be more dangerous than anything they've had to deal with so far, and you…"

"All the more reason," Walter came up closer. "If I'm going to be following you and the Doctor when you leave here, then I might as well know what I'm getting myself into already. I want to help you. I want…"

"To keep me safe," she filled in. He bowed his head. "What do you think I'm doing?" They were silent for a beat, each considering where they stood.

"I'm coming with you," he finally stated again, and Gemma leaned in to kiss him. She kept his face in her hands, staring into his eyes. It both terrified and gave her relief to know he'd be with them. Either way, he'd made up his mind, and she knew him enough to understand, he'd find a way to be there even if she attempted to keep him away.

"We have a very good chance of being gone tomorrow, you know that? Are you really ready to let go of everything here in just a few hours? Your apartment, your job, your family?"

"I've got rent squared away for a while, and a lot of unused sick leave, that won't be a problem."

"And your family?"

"I told them I'd be going off traveling, but that I'd keep in touch. I can do that, right?" he asked and she nodded. "So does that answer your question?" He smirked, and she kissed him again.

"You're been getting ready all this time, haven't you?"

"The Boy Scouts would have loved me," he confirmed, which made her laugh. "One thing though, I wasn't too sure... What does one pack on the eve of a trip through time and space with an alien?"

"Easy there," she patted his shoulder. "You won't be settling in just yet. The Doctor will come tomorrow, yes, but if won't be my Doctor, our Doctor, the one we'll be going back to."

"Right," He nodded, like a student taking notes.

"But he will be the one we have to help, us and the Glee Club." She could see he wanted to ask more on that, like always, but he had long learned it was a pointless enterprise so he didn't bother anymore. "After it's done, that's when we'll go back to the other Doctor, with the vortex manipulator." She pointed to her wrist on reflex. "But we will need to be ready to go. We won't be coming back here in between. Technically we might be able to stow our belongings away on the TARDIS, find them again after we jump and reunite with my Doctor."

"What'll happen with this place?" he pointed around the small apartment. "All your books… it's almost hard to imagine you without them."

"I don't know," she admitted, looking around, too. She had gotten used to what she called her perilous library. She had managed not to be buried in toppling towers of books, but it always felt like that was a possibility. She guessed the Doctor would see to their removal from here, but Gemma hoped she might get to keep them. "I used to stay here for days on end," she went on looking around, "And I couldn't wait to be done, to go home… now I genuinely feel like I'm going to miss it." It had started feeling like home the moment she'd had something worth staying for. That reason was sitting next to her, and she loved nothing more than to know he understood that. "Will you stay here tonight?"

"You got it," he nodded. "But I will need to go and make sure I'm all packed and ready to go in the morning." He got up, and she followed.

"I'll change and come help you."

"Do you have to?" he asked, looking at the dress again.

"Yes," she chuckled.

They were only turning to the door when they saw the small blue envelope on the ground. Gemma went and picked it up. She saw no point to checking if anyone was still out there, so instead she tore the envelope open.

"What does it say?" Walter asked. "Is it about tomorrow?"

"No," Gemma smiled, "It's not." She went and found the wrist strap. "I'll be right back."

"Are you sure?" Walter asked, and turning to him she could see his concern. She came up and kissed him again, good, long, just in case.

"I'm sure. This is just… a present from the Doctor. I'll explain later, you go get packed."

TO BE CONTINUED (TOMORROW)


	37. Gemma Lucas

**"The Theater, The Theatre"**

**37. Gemma Lucas**

_New York City, in the year 2047_

For all the trouble he had caused them, none of the others seemed to think to turn any sort of blame on to Tom. He was harmless, they knew even now, and they had more pressing matters at hand.

As the Doctor had suspected, the field's production of the ghosts, and in turn the ghost's exertion of energy within that field had worked to block off any other incoming signals, at least as low as communication of the era. When she had returned to Sophie and Rachel and the others, she was informed that everyone's phones were now working again, and George had called for an ambulance. Paramedics were on their way, and not a minute too soon.

Sophie's labor had progressed to the point where moving her to a hospital would have not been possible. The baby was coming now.

The paramedics' arrival had come in line with another's entrance into the theater.

"Sophie!" he cut past the man and woman in uniform.

"Julian!" she gasped, her eyes watering at the very sight of him. They had done as best as they could to keep her comfortable, fetching stage props and the likes to sit her up, and now Julian Lucas hurried to kneel at her side, joining Rachel who knelt at the opposite side. He leaned in to kiss his girlfriend, and she returned it gladly; she had never been so glad to see him. "You're here," she cried, grasping his hand.

"Where else would I be?" he breathed; he was crying, too. "Sophie, I'm so…"

"No, I'm sorry, I… I shouldn't have gone, I…"

"I never meant to upset you like that. I never want to do so again. I want to be right here, with you, and our baby," Julian promised.

"What happened to you?" she breathed, just before another contraction stalled her. The paramedics had moved in then, but even as they worked, Julian explained how he'd ended up here.

He had woken up at their apartment, laid out on the couch, though he had no recollection of how he'd ended up there. What he did know was what he now guessed to be a very vivid dream. He'd dreamt that he'd come running to the theater, looking for her, and he'd run into an angel who looked like her mother. Then there'd been another woman, and she hadn't wanted him to follow the angel. That was all he remembered. When he'd woken up, all he'd known with absolute certainty was that he needed to get to the theater, to get to her. When he'd arrived, he'd seen the ambulance, and he'd hurried in with them.

"But that wasn't a d…" Sophie started to say, until the Doctor coughed and shook her head: it didn't matter, not for now.

The half statement was thankfully forgotten, as Sophie had to give all her concentration over to bearing down and bringing forth the soon to be born child.

The Doctor had taken a step back and left the paramedics to do their job. She didn't know that she'd ever been privy to this early an introduction to one of her companions. Of course she had been aware of Gemma Lucas in one way or another, from her days as the nameless Shimmer Girl up to now.

Even now, she knew pieces were still falling into place. One day, she would encounter the girl again, by chance, Gemma would think. From that day on, for a reason she didn't actually understand just yet, Rachel Berry's granddaughter would dedicate herself to her, so much so that she would agree to help her in the way the Doctor knew she would. She had already lived through the climax of that dedication, but one thing still left her to wonder, and as she watched the pink little new human girl cry into life, she felt both her hearts skip.

"It's a girl," declared the paramedic who had received the baby into her arms. The rest of the theater group, as much as they'd been told to step back, were near, and they cheered at the news. Rachel looked quite the proudly emotional new grandmother, catching a first glimpse of her daughter's child. Julian leaned in to kiss the side of Sophie's head, and the new mother sighed her deepest sigh of relief; the dark cloud which had plagued her all day was good and gone.

Soon the baby had been brought clean and warmed into her father's arms before making her way into her mother's. The little family sat huddled on cushions of various shapes and colors.

Rachel had missed her husband for all the years since his death. She missed him for herself, but in equal amounts she lamented all the things he hadn't gotten to see. He hadn't seen their little girl grow up into the young woman she was now, seen all that she had achieved, and now this baby girl in her arms… He didn't get to see how much in only seconds of holding her, their Sophie had taken to exude a mother's warmth, gazing love at the newborn she cradled to her heart. Her eyes had never looked so much like her father's; it was the same look he'd worn twenty-four years ago, when he'd first held her.

Sophie had been brought on to the gurney so they might take her and the baby on to the ambulance and off to the hospital where both mother and daughter could be seen to. Most of the group would go home, with promises to visit in the morning, though Chloe and Jamie would accompany Rachel and the Doctor to meet Sophie, Julian and the baby at the hospital.

"Do you have a name for her yet?" the male paramedic had asked as they were pulling the ambulance doors open. Sophie had turned to Julian, giving a look of past conversations remembered, and they both smiled.

"Well, we… we had a few ideas," Julian explained.

"But we wanted to wait until we saw her," Sophie smiled, looking back down to her daughter.

"What do you think? What does she look like? I think…" Julian looked at her, then to Sophie, and they smiled at once. "Yeah?"

"Yeah," Sophie agreed. "She looks like a Gemma to me."

The Doctor smiled at this, though not nearly as much as she did when she turned and saw the look on Rachel's face. It could have been a coincidence, a whopping, overpowering coincidence, but she knew it wasn't. No, what she remembered instead was sitting in the choir room at McKinley, the first time "Miss Harrison" had sung for them, a song that had meaning to her family. 'As I lay me down,' by Sophie B. Hawkins. How many times had Benji played it for their Sophie, as he'd done for her, so much they'd named their daughter for the singer. The one who'd sung it in the choir room… was her granddaughter.

TO BE CONTINUED (TODAY)


	38. The Girl & The Story

**"The Theater, The Theatre"**

**38. The Girl & The Story**

_New York City, in the year 2047_

It wasn't until they'd been at the hospital for a time that Rachel first got to hold her granddaughter. The Doctor looked at them, and she couldn't help but wonder what was going through her mind, holding this baby girl, knowing now who she truly was. It was never going to change how she felt for her, not in the negative. All it could do was to make her even prouder of this child who'd only lived an hour.

After baby Gemma had been returned to her parents, Rachel had walked out into the hall again, slow, weighed down with feelings and with information. She took a seat, breathing… smiling. She opened her eyes when she felt someone sit by her side.

"You knew, all this time," Rachel told the Doctor. "You knew who she was, to me."

"All this time," the Doctor repeated, almost laughing. "Our meetings have not been entirely… mutual. A common side effect, I'm starting to see," she nodded to herself. "There is still much for me to learn about your granddaughter, if you can believe. But what I do know of her… I haven't travelled with her, not me, not yet… But I can see why I would… And I almost can't wait to…" She couldn't say how she'd already decided, how she would go and seek her out now, that she understood this was the time.

"What are we supposed to do?" Rachel asked. "Do I tell her?"

"You can, if you like. Honestly though, she's only just been born, I can't imagine she'd…"

"I meant Sophie," Rachel cut her off, and the Doctor paused, realizing her misunderstanding. "This is her daughter, only…"

"Why did you never tell Sophie her name? You called her 'the Teacher,' never Gemma, did you?"

"No," Rachel shook her head. "I never said it, she… told me not to, said too many people knew her name already, and… she made me promise."

"And you listened to her. You didn't have to, not with Sophie, what would it have mattered?" the Doctor shrugged. Rachel thought about it, and when it came down to it, the only answer was…

"I don't know… I just did."

"Maybe, just maybe, you felt something, a… a kinship." The Doctor looked back through the window, to where they could see Sophie talking to Julian, who held the baby. By the looks of it, she might have been telling him about what had happened in the theater.

"I can't tell her either," Rachel went on. "I do mean Gemma this time. I know who she'll be, I can't just pretend as though I don't, but…"

"You'll have to find a way. You can't do any different than you would have done."

"You mean I should tell her stories, even when I know they're about her?"

"You should. You must. They will shape her, in more ways than you or I will ever understand. You never tell her, then she'll never become the one those stories were about. They'll change everything, in ways you would never believe. She needs those stories."

"What if I get it wrong, what if I mess it up?" Rachel asked, unable to beat the uncertainty.

"Rachel…" the Doctor reached for her hand to comfort her, but almost just as soon jolted back. "Oh, what…" she reached into her pocket. She pulled out the paper in its holder, and when she read it, she smiled. "I think… I _know_ I have someone who can answer that better than I can. Follow me."

They'd gone down the hall, where the Doctor knocked at a closed door. When it opened, Rachel came face to face with her future granddaughter, just as she remembered her… This was not Ginny Harrison, or even Gemma Harrison. This was Gemma Lucas, the teacher, but… her granddaughter. She could see it now.

"Thanks for the note," Gemma told the Doctor.

"Oh, was there a note? Good to know. Carry on, you two," the Doctor bowed her head, leaving the two women alone.

They were silent for a while. Rachel looked at Gemma, and Gemma looked at Rachel. Gemma saw her grandmother at this age, being almost the same age her mother was in her own time, and it was astounding. Rachel looked at her, and it dawned on her that the blue dress she wore now was the same blue dress she'd worn on the last day she'd seen her until now, the day she'd graduated from McKinley High.

"Gemma…" Rachel spoke, and she had to pause, remembering again who she was and responding to her in consequence. If granddaughters couldn't depend on their grandmothers… "There's something you need to know, about what happened after graduation…"

"Don't," Gemma cut her off. "You can't say anything."

"But I just…" Rachel insisted, but was denied again.

"I know, but you'll only do more damage than good if you say whatever you want to say. Please…"

"Right," Rachel had no choice but to relent. If not for Gemma changing the subject, she might never have managed to move past it.

"It wasn't easy, you know? Staying away from you for so long? You have no idea, but I had to, I… I knew you'd see right through me if given half the chance," she smirked, which made Rachel smile.

"Oh, but look at you… You have so much of Sophie in you," Rachel reached forward, wrapping the woman in her arms. It had only increased the understanding in her, speaking with Gemma, that she was her family, her little girl's baby girl. Gemma was all too happy for the hug, giving as good as she got.

This was just what Gemma had needed, going into graduation day. For months she had been growing in the knowledge that what she was doing now would mean her grandmother would know about her, and that it wouldn't take very much more for her to connect the dots. Now here the moment had come, and thanks to the Doctor, she'd been allowed to be a part of it.

"Do you want to go and see…"

"What, myself?" Gemma asked, sniffling. "As fun as that might sound, there are… well, rules, in time… It's better we leave it like this. I should go anyway. Big day tomorrow, as you'll know."

"Yes, I do, I…" Again, Gemma stopped her, smiling.

"You should get back, too, hold that other me instead. She'll love that, all the time."

TO BE CONTINUED (TOMORROW)


	39. And a TARDIS

**"The Theater, The Theatre"**

**39. And A TARDIS**

_New York City, in the year 2070_

The Doctor wondered sometimes if the day would come where she might get to tell Gemma the whole story as to how they'd come to meet on that rooftop. She wished she could tell her how she had been caught off guard, too.

The fact was that she hadn't planned to meet her the way she'd done. But after she'd said her goodbyes to Rachel, and Sophie, and baby Gemma – she'd held her, at Sophie's insistence – she had returned to her TARDIS and taken off to go and find the grown Gemma.

It would all have gone according to plan, except for the readings her ship had started to report. With a frown, she had set down the TARDIS, walked out to find herself on a rooftop, then looked at the sky and forgot entirely about her initial purpose for being there. She'd gone back into the ship to retrieve a tool that might help her get a better idea of what she was dealing with. That was how Gemma had found her. Here she'd been, trying to orchestrate an encounter, but it had not gone so.

Even looking at her now, she could see plain as day this was a Gemma Lucas who had never known the Doctor in any form, who had only now set her eyes on the TARDIS for the first time in her life. But all the same, the girl knew who she was, which meant she had been raised on the stories, just as she was meant to be. Events were falling into place.

She had confirmed to Gemma how she did know her family, that she had even been there on the day of her birth, and that in particular seemed to awaken something in her.

"Yes, you were," Gemma stepped forward. "My father told me what you did for us, for my mother and me."

"Well, it was Young Cosima really, I…"

"I know, but it was you, too… And I can't really thank _her_, can I?" She had her there. "I've been trying to find you for years."

"There are better hobbies for young girls, aren't there?"

"I don't know if you'll see it that way, and that's okay, but the way I see it, we owe you."

"Gemma…"

"Let me come with you. Let me help you. I know what you do, I know you travel, and sometimes it's just that, but then there's those other times where you help people. I want to help you… help them."

"That's a lot of helping," the Doctor breathed. She had never known the entire story of how Gemma would end up travelling with her, but now here it was, and the Doctor found it suited to her very well. And there _was_ the thing about the sky… "Come here, let me show you something," she indicated for Gemma to come stand by her as she nodded to the sky. "Do you see anything up there?" Gemma looked.

"Well… besides the clouds?" she replied tentatively.

"Yes, exactly," the Doctor tugged her arm to get her right in place. "That one there, I think," she aimed the object she held back at the sky, causing it to resume its light thrumming.

Gemma was still just too baffled by what was happening. Between her waking up late and hurrying to get ready for Ginny's graduation, and now this, and… the graduation… She'd almost forgotten. But what was she supposed to do now? She'd looked for the Doctor for so long, and if she left… but Ginny…

"What do you think it is?" she had to at least ask. Then she might be able to figure out what to do next.

"Seems to be a ship in distress," the Doctor simply declared, and Gemma turned to look at her.

"A spaceship? Here?" The Doctor looked at her before tilting her head to the TARDIS. "No, but yours is a box, it's not in the sky, it's not…" she mimed something along the lines of 'a large craft with wings.'

"It could be," she frowned, fixing her jacket.

"What I'm trying to say is they might try and shoot it down," Gemma went on, and now the Doctor was back on track.

"Oh, they really don't want to do that," she pushed her device's antenna back down with a snap. "We'll have to do something about it." Gemma's ear twitched.

"We?"

"Unless you've changed your mind about…"

"No, no, I haven't, I… Let's go," she nodded. Maybe it wouldn't take too long.

So Gemma Lucas had set foot aboard the TARDIS for the first time that day. The ship had gone and met up with the crew in distress. With Gemma's help, the Doctor had gotten the broken down ship back into flying condition. The captain had been very thankful, and the two women had returned to the TARDIS in a hail of gratitude.

Her day being so determinedly set on 'whirlwind,' Gemma now found herself back on the TARDIS, headed to Earth's surface after having been in orbit.

"Can you take us back to the same time, before we left?" she cautiously asked. "The thing is I was on my way to my sister's graduation, and if I miss it…" She looked down at herself. Her clothes didn't show too much sign of all they'd done that day, but without ever looking at a clock she knew if they set down at the time it really was, she would have missed the graduation and the party and the dinner. "You could come with me. I'm sure they'd be glad to see you again," she smiled.

"I don't think that would be a good idea, but I will take you back," the Doctor countered.

"How will I find you again? I meant what I said, I want to come with you, it's just today, the graduation… I promised Ginny I'd be there." She didn't know why the Doctor smiled at the mention of her sister's name, but she could only hope it was a good sign.

"How long do you plan on following me, Gemma Lucas?"

"As long as you'll have me."

"This isn't just about this supposed debt, is it? Because if it is, I assure you, the pleasure was all mine, and you don't…"

"It is some of that," Gemma admitted. "But I…" she breathed, the thought of Earth's orbit alone making her smile, and the promise of so much more… The Doctor observed her some more, and then her mind was made up.

"I'll wait for you, right where we met, tomorrow morning."

TO BE CONCLUDED (TODAY)


	40. Twelve

_A/N: Didn't get to put these last two chapters out last night like I wanted to, but here they are now, and later today will mark the beginning of the FINALE in this series of more than two years! So be on the lookout for **"The Class of**_** 2012".**

* * *

**"The Theater, The Theatre"**

**40. Twelve**

_June 2012 – Lima, Ohio_

Gemma had arrived at McKinley, with the knowledge that Walter would join her, with their bags, in a short time. She'd left him to settle his affairs, to speak with the people he needed to speak with before they headed off on the TARDIS. For her part, the outlook was much more optimistic: when all was said and done here, she could finally go home and see her family again, in the time that she belonged to. _Me, but not Walter_… One day, eventually, they would have to figure their situation out for good, and she really didn't know what it would mean.

For now, of course, there were more urgent matters to deal with. The school was buzzing with parents, grandparents, siblings, and any number of other family members, along with the students of the class of 2012, the faculty… Gemma was keeping a constant hand to her pocket, where she'd stashed the item she'd retrieved from Artie. The instructions had been in the Doctor's notes since she'd gotten the notebook out of the bank. Now the Doctor's old broken sonic had been enabled to alert her when the TARDIS would land in the vicinity. So far, she had nothing.

The Glee Club was seeing eight of its fourteen members graduate that day, and Gemma had sighted each one of them in their red gowns that morning. The remaining six were also in attendance, with seats right up front. None of them had said as much, but Gemma was all but certain they suspected the Doctor's imminent arrival. There was an edginess to them that didn't feel at all like it had anything to do with graduation. The only ones who weren't behaving this way were Finn, who still had no clue, and Rachel, though she remained aware of all that surrounded her, especially her friends' strange behavior.

"Hey…" She jumped and turned. "Did he come yet?" Walter asked as he came to join her.

"Does it look like he has?" Gemma frowned.

"Right… Sorry." She smirked; he was looking downright giddy at this point.

"Graduation's about to start, let's go." They had taken their place in the audience, and soon the ceremony had begun. Gemma had found it hard not to feel a fair sort of pride over all those kids, not just the Glee Club, who had been in any one of the classes she'd taught. Now she couldn't wait to see them go by the stage with their diplomas.

She'd seen no more than five before she felt the pulse in her pocket, and she jumped for the second time that day, out of relief this time.

"Walter…" she whispered, gesturing to her pocket.

"What do we do?" he asked, sitting up. She held up her hand to him: wait. They looked around for a moment, then Gemma moved to stand. "Where are you going?"

"If I'm not back by the end of the ceremony, you get out there, and you bring in the cavalry," she nodded to the stage.

"The…" he looked where she'd nodded, then turned back to her. "All of them?"

"Go to Artie, he'll know what to do."

"You'll be there, right? You won't just… leave?" he asked. She gave him a smile. If she'd kissed him, he might have interpreted it as her admitting this might be goodbye. But it wouldn't be. She was going to fight like hell for Walter Reskin…

She didn't leave the auditorium so much as find a place to scope out unseen. She had a good feeling it would lead her in the right direction, and she was not disappointed. In time, she saw the man standing at the back, watching the students on stage. It was the Doctor, the last one before her own. After spending so much time, chasing after him, he was finally, it was safe to say, in her territory.

Watching him, she could see his mind working, noticing those familiar faces. It was opening up even bigger questions in him, and when he walked out of the auditorium, she had a feeling he wouldn't be wandering too far off. So she snuck off, too.

She could have kept tailing him, but she needed to make a different kind of stance. She walked out of McKinley, she realized, possibly for the last time, and made her way to the parking lot. When she saw the TARDIS, it was the most glorious sight she could have hoped for.

"Starting to see why she talks to that thing," she breathed, walking around the blue box. She might have tried to get hers and Walter's things in there already, but it would just have been presuming, and the Doctor would never be on board with that.

Gemma took a seat on the nearest bench she could get to, and she waited. She couldn't call him out just yet. There had been one thing in that notebook of the Doctor's, a time. She hadn't known what it had to do with, but now that she stood near the TARDIS, and the note time was nine minutes away, she had a good idea what it meant. She knew how long it would take her to send out the message to him, and when the time was right, she closed her eyes and focused. _Come out, come out… TARDIS._

Walking to the TARDIS herself, she knew he'd be running now. He would be here soon, and then…

"I'm here now!" his voice called, and she took a breath. "Hello?" And it was on.

"Hello," she stepped out from around the TARDIS, and he turned, saw her. "Hello, Doctor," she smiled. He was genuinely surprised.

"You," he reacted, and she nodded, coming closer. She had always wondered, ever since they had started this, how their meeting would go. Today she was shedding the Shimmer Girl, and the Doctor would know her for who she was.

"I forget you don't know my name right now," she chuckled, holding her hand to him and hoping he would take it. "Gemma Lucas, nice to meet you… again." He straightened up, looking at her. He knew as well as she did, things were coming to a head, and now in telling him her name, she'd confirmed it. So he put his hand in hers.

"I don't know, I've gotten used to Shimmer Girl," he shrugged, and she squeezed his hand. "But Gemma will do," his voice choked, and she smirked, letting go. The Doctor shook out his hand, still staring at her, but primarily staring at the graduation program in her other hand. "How did you know I would be here? You couldn't have lured me, no… I came here because of… a friend."

"Quinn Fabray," she guessed with a nod. "You wanted to make sure she was alright after you sent her back, because of the accident." He went on staring.

"You weren't there, the circus… I would have known."

"Would you?" she shrugged, moving to the TARDIS doors. "If you want to know more, you'll have to let me in."

"Give me one reason," he didn't break eye contact. She smiled obligingly, then leaned in to whisper at his ear. It only took one word, and he was moving to open the doors. Inside the ship, he turned to face her expectantly.

"I've been here for seven months, waiting for this day, preparing…"

"Preparing?" the Doctor asked. "Preparing what?"

"Who," Gemma corrected, and absolutely on cue, there was a knock at the door. "Speaking of which," she tipped her head. "You might want to get that," she whispered.

The Doctor looked at the door, at her, the door again, but finally he opened the door, coming face to face with a cluster of red gowns and fancy dress, and familiar faces by the plenty. Some were shocked, others thrilled, some more dazed.

"Doctor?" asked the boy in the wheelchair.

"Come on in, before anyone sees you," Gemma called, and before the Doctor could argue, they'd started to file in, seven girls, seven boys, and a man Gemma's age. He was at the back, escorting one of the boys, more dazed than all combined.

"What the hell is going on?" Finn asked. "Where are we?"

THE END


End file.
